“The sorrows of the old West” is about the fate of the European West and its writhing in what looks like a disintegrating alliance with the United States, caused by failure of both to live up recently to their own common sense and stand up to Russian aggression in Ukraine, which is part of Europe whether anyone likes it or not. Failure in the east is the reason why the crunch in the European Union wrought by waves of migration from Syria can be manipulated by Putin.
Here is where it stands. With the Syrian migrant crisis set to expand following Putin’s move into Syria, Europe is crying uncle to Putin — partly since the US isn’t there to lead. The next step by Europe may be Russia in, US out of Europe. NATO dissolution is to follow.
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker put it succinctly: “Europe must improve its relations with Russia and should not let this be something decided by Washington” (Reuters, Oct. 8).
Undoubtedly, Washington had been urgently warned by European Union officials. Incredibly, President Barack Obama’s reply is languishing in limbo, except saying that it will take years to degrade ISIS (as if ISIS has anything to do with Russia’s geopolitical threat to the US and Europe). His inner circle in Washington is focusing on America’s perceived internal problems, not on foreign affairs, except on terrorism and ISIS dramatic exploits. More side-tracking is now in a dispute with Russia over sharing Syria’s air space.
Washington appeared puzzled for a while by Vladimur Putin’s move into Syria with military muscle. No one believes Putin’s fuzz about leading a new coalition against the ISIS. Keeping Assad in power is his more likely objective, although Western poly science thinkers say it could lead to another Afghanistan for Russia. And it is not meant to “divert attention from Ukraine”.
Putin did it because, with disarray in the West and its proven cowardice in Ukraine, he could. Russia’s objective is very simple: Intensify the pressure on the European Union by increasing the Syrian migration exodus with more violence in Syria against civilian population, mainly by increased bombing of towns in western part of the country under opposition control, and no trace of ISIS.
If indeed the Russians become pressured by ISIS, they will easily avoid the Afghan trap by agreeing to face-saving talks with the US about planning Assad’s graceful exit into some Syrian coalition setup. While this is going on, NATO’s role in Europe is deteriorating into irrelevance.
How should America respond to Russia’s plunge into Syria right now? This is a good question all think- tanks are struggling with. Many are blaming President Obama for “creating a power vacuum” in the Mideast, which Russia now has filled. The majority view now seems to be that the US will make no power moves in Syria.
But doing nothing substantive will accelerate migration exodus into Europe, which will tear the EU apart and deliver Europe to Putin on a plate when he agrees to soft-pedal in Syria.
The obvious way to a speedy exit of Putin from Syria is for NATO to become involved in removing Russia’s presence from east Ukraine and Crimea. US President Obama cannot stomach such action because he lacks ability to make decisions expected from a real-world president. His outstanding forte is in community relations, including taming the power of questionable law enforcement actions in his own country, easing jail overcrowding, and relying on the good will of the warring parties in general.
The main reason why almost no one is writing about urgent need for NATO move into Ukraine –despite many requests for help from Ukraine government — is the hiding behind the cushy dogma of “No military solution”, despite military aggression from Russia. Such superlative denial of what needs to be done by the US and Europe is now leading to a logical climax: disintegration of the Western alliance.
There is no use to speculate what Mitt Romney would have done as president. The perception of international politics by a leading Republican candidate for US presidency, Donald Trump is dismally below a Donald Duck’s horizon. If elected as president, he promises to “make a deal” with Mr. Putin, because — get this — deal making is his business specialty. This seems to be the symptom of a larger malaise: mental paralysis of the West.
Predictably, truth is the first casualty of war. None among the powers that be or among western news technicians is willing to openly acknowledge that the ongoing collapse of Europe’s alliance with the US is a consequence of refusal to support Ukraine’s fight for freedom. It is like abandoning that country to a bear’s hug is a done deal, not worth mentioning. See “Ukraine is being told to live with Putin”, by Leonid Bershidsky (Op-ed in Kyiv Post, Oct. 5).
Something unexpected has happened to the euphoria from Jimmy Carter’s banner of priority of the human rights and its follow up by Ronald Reagan. The evil empire of Putin is making an impression of rising from the ashes of the Soviet Union, not by its strength but by the fragile rust of Western fabric.
