The explanations we are given make no sense, neither Washington’s, Putin’s, nor Iran’s. How did terrorists whose leaders had $10 million bounties on their heads become “democratic jihadists” who comprise Syria’s “interim government” with Washington’s and Putin’s support?
Interim for who? The most likely answer to the question is for Greater Israel.
How does Syria exist when it is partitioned into three parts between Israel, Washington, and Turkey? The Israeli government has already said that it is in Syria to stay as Syria is part of Greater Israel. Turkey is holding on to the north in order to eliminate the Kurds, allegedly under America’s protection. Washington has the oil territory and the money.
The first thing Israel did was to destroy every Syrian arms depot and arms manufacturing facility to make certain that the “democratic jihadists” had no weapons with which to oppose the incorporation of Syria into Greater Israel.
The Americans have the oil, so how is Humpty Dumpty going to be put back together again?
It is not going to happen. Syria, like Palestine, no longer exists.
Why does Putin describe the destruction of Syria as a victory for Russia?
Why did the battle-hardened and previously victorious Syrian army refuse to fight the CIA’s insurgents it had previously defeated? Who payed off the Syrian generals?
Why did Putin allow the remnants of those defeated elements of “democratic jihadists” to recoup in the untouched American occupied part of Syria?
Why did Putin and Iran allow the destruction of Syria, a destruction that removed Iran’s buffer and the resupply routes to Hezbollah in Lebanon, a check on Israel’s aggression, and left in question Russia’s only naval base on the Mediterranean and air bases for projection of Russian power?
More questions could be asked, but these are sufficient to demonstrate the absence of credible explanation.
What is apparent is that the correlation of forces which were going against Washington and Israel have suddenly reversed. Russia has turned her back on an ally. Iran is isolated. Hezbollah is isolated. The credibility of the Russian/Iranian Pact which is supposed to be signed the day before or the day of Trump’s inauguration is in question.
The loss of Syria is perceived in Washington as a Russian and Iranian defeat.
Trump’s Zionist government is telling him that Iran is ripe for attack.
Putin, weakened by the Israeli/American defeat of Russia in Syria, is in a subordinate position in his reportedly upcoming negotiations with Trump about Ukraine. If Trump agrees to Putin’s conditions, the American media will instantly headline: “Trump Sells Out Ukraine to Putin.” The US Democrat Party will fund a new “dossier” that “proves” trump conspired with Putin against Ukraine. Most Democrats believe such a conspiracy is why Trump won the Presidency in 2016.
There are two aspects of “making America Great Again” that have escaped MAGA Americans and apparently Putin, Xi, and Iran. For Trump and Musk, making America great means making more profits. US corporations make profits by substituting cheaper foreign labor for US labor. Thus Trump and Elon Musk’s endorsement of replacing Americans with foreigners on H-1B visas. See this.
The other aspect is restoring American hegemony. America is great when Washington is exercising hegemony, either by bombs and sanctions or by bribes that purchase governments. Years ago I was informed by Chinese sources that US corporations operating in China place the relatives of party leaders on their boards at fantastic levels of director’s fees. The money removes loyalty from China and replaces it with loyalty to America.
Trump can simultaneously sell out the American workforce while he makes America great again by taking advantage of the pressure China, Brazil, and BRICS members are putting on Putin to settle Ukraine diplomatically so they can get on with non-sanction trade relations with the West.
To settle diplomatically means Putin has to give up some of his stated goals of his “Temporary military operation,” now 6 months longer than it took Stalin to drive the German Wehrmacht out of Russia, Eastern Europe, and reach the streets of Berlin. Once Putin makes concessions to end the conflict, the patriotic and nationalistic elements in Russia will be asking why Russia lost so many lives in order to piss away a victory.
In other words, it is a perfectly set formula for the destabilization of Putin’s government if he is unable to produce victory in Ukraine. Putin and Lavrov need to understand that it is the Western media, not them, that controls the explanations.
A strategic thinker would have foreseen this, but Putin is not a strategic thinker.
My view remains what it has been from the beginning. Putin’s inability to recognize and deal with an existential threat will result in Russia being pushed to the wall where there is no more room to back up, and war will explode.
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Paul Craig Roberts is a renowned author and academic, chairman of The Institute for Political Economy where this article was originally published. Dr. Roberts was previously associate editor and columnist for The Wall Street Journal. He was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy during the Reagan Administration. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.
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