Spectator
And most importantly, Putin stole the show at the United Nations
General Assembly last month with an impassioned speech denouncing the
whole US-backed project of democracy in the Middle East at its very
root. The Arab Spring has been a catastrophe, Putin argued, and the western
countries who encouraged Arab democrats to rise against their corrupt
old rulers opened a Pandora’s box of troubles. ‘Instead of the triumph
of democracy and progress, we got violence, poverty and social
disaster,’ he told assembled delegates, in remarks aimed squarely at the
White House. ‘Nobody cares about human rights, including the right to
life. I cannot help asking those who have forced this situation, do you
realise what you have done?’ It was quite a sight: a Russian president
taking the moral high ground against an American president — and getting
away with it. ......
But it’s precisely because Putin has been proved right about the dangers
of intervention that his own adventure in Syria is likely to end badly.
For one, it’s a myth that Assad is the main bulwark against Isis in
Syria. According to figures from IHS Jane’s, only 6 per cent of
the Syrian regime army’s 982 operations last year were actually
directed against Isis. Most of Assad’s attacks — including with Scud
missiles and the infamous barrel bombs dropped from helicopters on
residential areas — targeted groups that opposed Isis, thereby helping
pave the way for Isis to take over Raqqa and the oilfields of northern
Syria.
......The Russian operation in Syria is minuscule compared to the vast bases
like Camp Victory that Halliburton built for the US military in Iraq,
which looked like major airports and boasted full-scale food courts,
shopping malls and acres of air-conditioned accommodation. Reports so
far show a shipshape but tiny Russian operation, complete with a field
bakery, a portable laundry and a single squadron of aircraft as well as
some combat helicopters."
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