By Robert Laurie ——Bio and Archives--October 3, 2015
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"Well, first, we know what's going on. Syria and Russia, who have had a longstanding relationship, Iran, and Iraq, are forming an unholy alliance. Russia's intentions are to shore up, and stabilize the Assad regime. ISIS is sort of a camouflage. There is no doubt, that Russia will be conducting airstrikes against anti-Assad rebels, whether or not they happen to strike a few ISIS folks as well is, I don't know, to be determined. Here's what we need to do immediately, I believe. First, not only can we not withdraw our air support, but I believe we must tell the Russians that we will conduct--we will secure a no-fly zone around anti-Assad rebel forces that we're supporting. This is a tricky maneuver, it's a dangerous maneuver, but it's a maneuver that we must undertake, because we must make it crystal clear to Russia that they do not get to move into the Middle East, and become the dominant outside power, which is clearly their intention." When asked if these means the US might use force against Russian aircraft, Fiorina answered, "Well, hopefully not. hopefully, if we are signaling clearly to the Russians our intention, it will not come to that."
"I personally would be advocating now for a no-fly zone and humanitarian corridors to try to stop the carnage on the ground and from the air, to try to provide some way to take stock of what's happening, to try to stem the flow of refugees."The obvious flaw in this line of thinking can be summed-up with one of Fiorina's words: "hopefully." Both of these suggestions rely on little more than wishful thinking. Does anyone really believe that, if Obama suddenly said 'no,' Putin would be brought to heel? Of course not. If Putin has demonstrated anything, it's that he knows the President he's dealing with. Obama has shown himself to be a disgracefully weak Command In Chief who sat around, twiddling his thumbs, announcing a series of false 'red lines' while the situation spiraled out of control. If we wanted to head off the current problem, the time to do so was months or years ago. That train has, at least for now, left the station. The Russian President is well aware that Obama will not act, so threatening a no-fly zone is all but pointless. He has no real incentive to stand down. Obama aside, if Clinton & Fiorina's "no-fly plan" was enacted, it would set our two nations on a course toward direct conflict. Given the shaky nature of our "allies" in the region, are we really want toilling to risk an armed confrontation with Russia over a few, possibly-turncoat, CIA-backed rebels? If we'd had a better leader over the course of the last few years, he might have made decisions that would have prevented our current situation. As it is, we had Barack Obama. Elections have consequences, and we can count the current Syrian situation among them. Pretending we can put the toothpaste back in the tube does no one any good.
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