Friendships in trouble
So I guess Trump and Putin are no longer BFFs. Sad.
Russia on Friday froze a critical agreement on military cooperation with the United States in Syria after an American military strike, warning that the operation would further corrode already dismal relations between Moscow and Washington.
Syria, Russia’s ally, condemned the American strikes as “a disgraceful act.”
…
Mr. Peskov said that the cruise missile strikes on Friday represented a “significant blow” to American-Russian ties, and that Mr. Putin considered the attack a breach of international law that had been made under a false pretext. “The Syrian Army has no chemical weapons at its disposal,” Mr. Peskov said.
The American strikes on an airfield in Al Shayrat, which were aimed at Syrian fighter jets and other infrastructure, ignored the fact that “terrorists” had also used chemical weapons, Mr. Peskov said, without naming specific instances.
Iran is also peeved, while Saudi Arabia is enthusiastic.
The British defense secretary, Michael Fallon, expressed support for the American missile strikes. “One of the purposes of this very limited and appropriate action was to deter the regime from using gas in this appalling way,” he told the BBC.
In a joint statement, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and President François Hollande of France said that Mr. Assad, the Syrian president, “bears sole responsibility.”
Erdoğan also gave a thumbs up.
I think the US strike was premature and rash. It is not yet established who perpetrated the chemical weapons attack. If we look at the atrocity from the point of view of “who benefits” it is highly unlikely to heve been by Assad or Russia. They are winning the war at this time and they do not need adverse publicity that the use of chemical weapons would cause. The benficiaries are ISIS and Al Quaeda type groups who are losing the war and who want to draw the world into attacks on Assad and Russia. Why would the West want to take an action that supports groups whohate all non-muslims and want to wage a jihad on the whole world in order to create an islamic state.?
‘Premature and rash?’ Or pointless and far too late?
Assad and Putin’s conduct in Syria has been atrocious for half a decade. The West waffled and clutched their pearls while Syrian opposition was wiped out, and a possible Arab Spring degenerated into a Shia/Alawai vs Sunni tribal war.
Trump’s action appears to be driven by his warped personality and short-sighted machismo. If he cared a fig about Syria, he might have planned, or taken, actions—perhaps including military ones—that would weaken Assad and discourage atrocities. But NO…he poses behind the cruise-missile wheel and pretends to honk the horn.
Perhaps Putin is having buyer’s remorse at last?