Putin’s
Hesitation Has Lost Syria’s Idlib
Province
By Paul Craig Roberts
September 20, 2018 "Information
Clearing House"
-
The
provocations that Putin invites are
now escalating. Peter Ford, former
British ambassador to Syria, points
out that Washington has quickly
taken advantage of Putin’s hesitancy
in Syria to escalate the pretexts on
which Washington will launch a
military attack on the Syrian
forces. Formerly Washington’s
pretext was to be a false flag
“chemical attack” that would be
blamed on Syria. Washington’s new
pretext precludes the liberation of
Idlib as Washington has declared
that any attempted liberation of the
province from Washington’s terrorist
allies will result in a US military
attack on Syria. Indeed, even a
refugee flow whether or not caused
by a Syrian attack is deemed to be a
“humanitarian issue” that justifies
a US military attack on Syria.
President Trump’s Special Envoy for
Syria, James Jeffrey, just announced
that the United States will not
tolerate an attack, period.
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2018/09/19/idlib-lull-before-hurricane.html
Clearly, the
Syrian/Russian liberation of Idlib
from Washington’s terrorists cannot
now happen, unless Putin is willing
to establish such air superiority
over Syria, backed up by Russian
weapons, that the US would be
incapable of launching an attack.
Washington’s escalation of its
provocations means that Putin would
have to accept the risk of
destroying any US attack forces that
were sufficiently reckless to test
the defenses.
We are watching unfold
my concern that the acceptance of
provocations results in more
provocations and that the
provocations escalate in their
danger. What will Putin do now? If
he backs down again, he can expect a
yet more dangerous provocation until
the only choice becomes surrender or
nuclear war.
Washington’s
provocations would not have reached
the current level of intensity if
Putin had put his foot down several
provocations ago. Indeed, the
entire Syrian crisis would have been
over except for the repeated
hesitations and premature
withdrawals of Russian forces.
Does the Russian
government not understand that
Washington is conducting war against
Russia, not against terrorists?
Dr. Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of
the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate
editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was
columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News
Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many
university appointments. His internet columns
have attracted a worldwide following. Roberts'
latest books are
The Failure of Laissez Faire
Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West,
How America Was Lost,
and
The Neoconservative Threat to
World Order.
The
views expressed in this article are solely those
of the author and do not necessarily reflect the
opinions of Information Clearing House.
