Who Would Have Thought that a Former KGB Officer Would become the Geopolitical Strategy Grownup in the Room? — Vladimir Putin’s New York Times Opinion Piece Countered President Obama’s Naive World View — a Calculated Ploy, but True, insofar as It Goes

© 2013 Peter Free

 

12 September 2013

 

 

President Obama is exceptionally good at self-serving, short-term politics — but too frequently unskilled at genuinely productive leadership — and Russia’s President Putin has called him on it

 

To wit:

 

 

Recent events surrounding Syria have prompted me to speak directly to the American people and their political leaders. It is important to do so at a time of insufficient communication between our societies.

 

The potential strike by the United States against Syria, despite strong opposition from many countries and major political and religious leaders, including the pope, will result in more innocent victims and escalation, potentially spreading the conflict far beyond Syria’s borders.

 

A strike would increase violence and unleash a new wave of terrorism. It could undermine multilateral efforts to resolve the Iranian nuclear problem and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and further destabilize the Middle East and North Africa. It could throw the entire system of international law and order out of balance.

 

Syria is not witnessing a battle for democracy, but an armed conflict between government and opposition in a multireligious country. There are few champions of democracy in Syria. But there are more than enough Qaeda fighters and extremists of all stripes battling the government.

 

It is alarming that military intervention in internal conflicts in foreign countries has become commonplace for the United States. Is it in America’s long-term interest? I doubt it.

 

Millions around the world increasingly see America not as a model of democracy but as relying solely on brute force, cobbling coalitions together under the slogan “you’re either with us or against us.”

 

But force has proved ineffective and pointless.

 

Afghanistan is reeling, and no one can say what will happen after international forces withdraw. Libya is divided into tribes and clans. In Iraq the civil war continues, with dozens killed each day. In the United States, many draw an analogy between Iraq and Syria, and ask why their government would want to repeat recent mistakes.

 

I would rather disagree with a case [President Obama] made on American exceptionalism, stating that the United States’ policy is “what makes America different. It’s what makes us exceptional.”

 

It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation.

 

We are all different, but when we ask for the Lord’s blessings, we must not forget that God created us equal.

 

© 2013 Vladimir V. Putin, A Plea for Caution From Russia — What Putin Has to Say to Americans About Syria, New York Times (11 September 2013) (extracts)

 

 

Ploy or not, what Putin says is true (insofar as it goes)

 

It is easy to dismiss President Putin’s “plea” as being laughably hypocritical and exclusively Russia-serving. Russia certainly has more to lose via regime change in Syria than the United States does.

 

However, Putin’s brief analysis of what is at stake in Syria is geopolitically more insightful than President Obama’s strategically questionable case for armed intervention there for allegedly noble humanitarian purposes.  The former KGB operative appears to be better at reading history and current affairs than his often sanctimoniously blabbing American adversary.

 

If we leave President Putin’s hypocrisy about supporting the rule of law aside, it is clear that he is correct about the nature of the Syrian opposition — and about the long term result of yet another poorly thought out American military intervention.  Violent intervention in Syria is probably going to work out as unhelpfully as it did in Libya, Egypt, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

 

The only American sector that benefited from these bloody escapades is the Military Industrial Complex, which does not care whose son or daughter dies, just so long as it reaps a financial profit.

 

 

The moral? — Russia has a poor record on law and human rights, but that does not mean that President Putin’s analysis of a military Syrian intervention is incorrect

 

Sometimes, our adversaries do us a favor by directly and indirectly pointing to the self-damaging flaws in our behavior and outlook.

 

Rather than get jingoistically angry about Putin’s hypocrisy regarding God and law, it would be wise to reflect on the probable accuracy of his Realpolitik.