"Sometimes the cold war does not seem so cold after all..."
BREAKING NEWS! The Russians are arming the government forces of Syria and after sitting on our thumbs for many months, we have decided to give some (to be determined) arms to the rebel forces. Many that heard this news are wondering if they have seen this movie before. Yes folks, we have.
The Russians, it seems, don't believe our Administration. They don't believe the "red line" has been crossed. Funny, I thought after President Bush "screwed up" the relationship with the Kremlin, our new (untested and untrained) leader was going to kiss and make up. You remember - hitting that whole "reset button" thing. Either the Russians are "playing us" (again), or they know something that we refuse to admit. They might truly believe (as the old expression goes), the devil we know is better than the devil we don't know.
So here we are, once again. We will show our stuff, and the Russians and/or the Chinese, will show us theirs. We will not directly fight each other, but we will allow our "stuff" to fight their "stuff". Recently, there has been some ink spilled in the press on how the rebels are aligned with Al-Qaeda. Some are still questioning if the Benghazi mess was related to US supplied arms falling into the wrong hands. By the way, supplying light forces will not do the trick as the Russians have supplied much more than light weapons to government forces.
So what do we do? In past proxy wars, we knew the "good guys" from the "bad guys". Today, not so much. In Korea, we fought the Chinese even though we were not at war with them. In Viet Nam, the same holds true. However, they kept their distance behind the well supplied North Viet Nam Army. Now we come down to Syria. We will supply arms to those opposed to Assad and the Russians will do the same from the other side. In the old days, long before defense cuts and sequestration, we could put our "best stuff" on the battlefield. Now, our "best stuff" might not be the 'best stuff".
So here we are. Ready to get involved in another war that will probably end with "boots on the ground". We tried the 30,000 foot war in Bosnia. Over there, the higher altitude worked okay. Now we will be going up against some of the most sophisticated SAM missile in the world, compliments of Russia. We still don't know if we are backing the right side or the wrong side on this very, bloody, very messy conflict. I, like many of us, don't have a clue at this point.
Look for this issue to be resolved sooner rather than later. Until then, it will be a game of chess. Whatever we give to our side, it will be matched what the Russians give to the other. All we can hope is that our "proxy war" stays proxy and does not escalate into something much more dangerous.
So here we are, once again. We will show our stuff, and the Russians and/or the Chinese, will show us theirs. We will not directly fight each other, but we will allow our "stuff" to fight their "stuff". Recently, there has been some ink spilled in the press on how the rebels are aligned with Al-Qaeda. Some are still questioning if the Benghazi mess was related to US supplied arms falling into the wrong hands. By the way, supplying light forces will not do the trick as the Russians have supplied much more than light weapons to government forces.
So what do we do? In past proxy wars, we knew the "good guys" from the "bad guys". Today, not so much. In Korea, we fought the Chinese even though we were not at war with them. In Viet Nam, the same holds true. However, they kept their distance behind the well supplied North Viet Nam Army. Now we come down to Syria. We will supply arms to those opposed to Assad and the Russians will do the same from the other side. In the old days, long before defense cuts and sequestration, we could put our "best stuff" on the battlefield. Now, our "best stuff" might not be the 'best stuff".
So here we are. Ready to get involved in another war that will probably end with "boots on the ground". We tried the 30,000 foot war in Bosnia. Over there, the higher altitude worked okay. Now we will be going up against some of the most sophisticated SAM missile in the world, compliments of Russia. We still don't know if we are backing the right side or the wrong side on this very, bloody, very messy conflict. I, like many of us, don't have a clue at this point.
Look for this issue to be resolved sooner rather than later. Until then, it will be a game of chess. Whatever we give to our side, it will be matched what the Russians give to the other. All we can hope is that our "proxy war" stays proxy and does not escalate into something much more dangerous.
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