Brief Note: Russia in Syria

Michael L.

I do not have much to say at the moment on this story, but we're all keeping a wary eye on it, that much is certain.

My suspicion is that no one, really, knows quite what to make of this story, yet.  I received an email from an old college buddy of mine in which he brought up the possibility of World War III.

Were Harry Truman, or even JFK, president he might have a point, but I do not believe that Barack Obama has the stomach to stand up to Vladimir Putin.

The entire Middle East is unstable due to the so-called "Arab Spring" which was actually, in fact, the latest violent, spasmodic resurgence of political Islam, and all that entails, including the various head choppings, crucifixions, the igniting of people in cages, and the burying of Yazidis alive in mass graves.

I refer to this as a resurgence because, obviously, none of this is new.  1979 in Iran was a turning point enabled by President Jimmy Carter, but contemporary political Islam has been an ongoing project since the 1920s with the emergence of the Muslim Brotherhood and its primary racist and authoritarian theoreticians such as Sayyid Qutb and Hassan al-Banna.

The Arab Spring and the Middle East shake-up - along with the steady US withdrawal from international significance - is exceedingly important because it created the power vacuum necessary for the emergence of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and the potential for Putin's Russia to insert its influence into the region.

My suspicion is that the United States under this president will simply stand down.

Given the current US lack of strategic foreign policy vision, maybe it is not such a bad idea.

I only want the United States to stand up if there is a sense that the US government knows what it's doing.

I do not get that sense.