The photo on the front page of one of the nation’s leading newspapers was the likeness of a smiling, waving Bashar al-Assad of Syria. In front of the large photo was a crowd of smiling teenagers and young adults applauding their leader. This front-page snapshot was eerily reminiscent of the photos from the 1930’s and 40’s showing Adolph Hitler with palm raised toward the sun at a podium above his adoring brainwashed converts to Nazism.
Have the people of the world once again lost their way? The man these youth are cheering is guilty of unimaginable atrocities. These Syrian citizens are extolling the very person that has slain thousands of unsuspecting fellow citizens. The people who have rendered their own votes and the votes of absent family members to keep Assad in power have succumbed to the same heretical philosophies of Adolph Hitler, Idi Amin and Saddam Hussein. There must be an element of fear among these proponents considering the hundreds of thousands of fellow Syrians that have been extinguished.
The Assad regime in Syria has been engaged for four years in putting down a revolution by those fighting for new government. In August of 2013 reports of deaths using chemical weapons was reported and President Obama made a threatening statement about ‘crossing a red line.’ A few days later in Sweden, the President recast the statement by saying that not he, but the world had drawn a ‘red line.’ To avert a possible air strike, President Putin of Russia agreed to remove the 1,300 metric tons of chemical weapons admitted to by Assad. Although Assad has agreed to get rid of the chemical weapons in accord with the standards set by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW)’ there were more deaths from chlorine gas in May of this year. There have been several postponements and the task of removal will extend beyond June 30, 2014.
The United Nations, impotent as ‘The League of Nations’ of yesteryear and individual world leaders stand by spewing strong words but feeble actions to recover hundreds of kidnapped innocent little schoolgirls in Nigeria. The UN issues lackluster warnings to Russia and other nations that misbehave. The Russian Army takes over the Crimean Peninsula and rattles their swords in an effort to annex all of Ukraine. Our ersatz leaders speak sternly about a ‘red line’ that fades away in the murky twilight of threats, promises and inaction. Our President, trying to pull together a coalition of nations speaks of boycotts and sanctions to resist Putin’s thirst for conquest. Putin ignores the slights and signs a multi-billion dollar agreement for energy shipments to friendly China.
The US has been busy shoring up the Afghan military prior to leaving the country to its own security and a modicum of freedom for citizens. The dates of withdrawing US troops and direct support have been announced apparently so the Taliban can extend a helping hand. Why do you suppose the US Department of Defense placed orders for dozens of Mi-17 Russian helicopters at a cost of about $1 billion for the Afghans?
Are we so naïve that we think Russia has the potential for being a more-friendly version than during the bad old days of the Cold War under Joseph Stalin, Georgy Malenkov and Nikita Khrushchev? Or is it because Russia holds more than 100 billion of our treasury securities? Russia remains a proud communist country with a totalitarian government dispensing limited freedoms to its people.
Just recently when the President addressed the 2014 graduates of West Point, he boasted that he had found a middle way between isolationism and military interventionism. Evaluating the ‘high ground’ of that middle road, it seems as though we are shoulder to shoulder with those who are hesitant, ambivalent procrastinators. There is an immutable assertion that if you delay decisions and postpone actions long enough, problem resolutions will take place logically.
The bad news is that the solutions usually will not favor those who failed to act.
– Dick Baynton
