"Obama seeks clarity on Syria..." Washpost

"Even as Russian President Vladi­mir Putin started sending tanks, aircraft and additional personnel to Syria’s Mediterranean coast early this month, Obama told his top national security advisers to step back and assemble a sharper picture of how various proposed initiatives would fit together into a coherent whole and improve what is a largely stagnant conflict.

Putin’s moves have further delayed and complicated decision-making on plans that include sending U.S. arms directly to Kurdish and Arab rebels in northeastern Syria, and scaling back and revamping a failed U.S. military training program for other Syrian opposition fighters.

The Russian leader’s objectives remain a mystery to the White House, leading Obama to conclude that the best way to find out is to ask him directly. The two are scheduled to hold a formal meeting for the first time in two years on Monday, after they both deliver morning speeches at the U.N. General Assembly."  Karen De Young

--------------

 Maybe someone should give Obama a digest of the materials published here on Syria/Iraq.  Well, pilgrims, we know that will not happen but we should take heart.  He is at last paying enough attention to this onrushing disaster. 

He has asked the various factions and departments in his administration to sort out and present a coherent picture of what it is that we are doing to further enmerder the situation?  That should prove to be a magnificent exercise in cognitive dissonance, but l'enmerdeur en chef will manage somehow to further confuse the situation I am sure.

By now we should know that Putin thinks he is dealing with a confused schoolyard bully when he talks to Obama.  He will try to reason with the prez but that is likely to prove the futility that he must already know it will be.  Then he will settle for some limited cooperation that can be disguised by Obama as a resolute insistence that Assad is the root problem and that he must go. 

Gradually a de facto alliance will emerge in the struggle against the jihadis, ALL THE JIHADIS, but progress towards that happy state will be slow going.  pl 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/obama-seeks-clarity-on-syria-strategy-as-russia-enters-the-battle-space/2015/09/26/005d1f0e-63d0-11e5-8e9e-dce8a2a2a679_story.html

Comments

[The Beaver]

Colonel,

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-34372892

"France has carried out its first air strikes against Islamic State militants in Syria, the president's office says.

French planes had hit targets identified during reconnaissance missions over the past fortnight, the statement said, without giving details."

[Castellio]

Critical moment of possible reevaluation.

Would that Chas Freeman was advising....

[gemini33]

The warnings issued by CENTCOM to Russia via social media on Friday were, well, interesting. I can't get used to the idea of world powers using Twitter to troll and threaten each other.
https://twitter.com/CENTCOM

[different clue]

Is "enmerder" like "scheissen der bed"? Can we rely on our Scheissenmeister in Chief to get the job really truly done? (Please pardon All my ad hoc German spelling . . . )

[VietnamVet]

Colonel,

The cognitive dissonence over Syria will cause a grand mal seizure in DC. The quest for the overthrow of Assad is a root cause of the current deluge of refugees into Europe. This crisis opened the door for Vladimir Putin to come to the rescue of its ally the Syrian government and is an attempt to force the West to back down from its proxy wars with Russia.

We are right in the midst of the Cold War II witnessing the ratchetting up of tensions between two nuclear powers. This is dangerous because the very powerful groups represented by their surrogates Hillary Clinton and Carly Fiorina who want to destabilize Russia, reduce the Middle East to warring tribes, and sell more weapons to the Gulf States. Whack-a-mole bombing is a military contractor money maker.

To end the flow of refugees from Ukraine and Syria, these wars have to be settled and the borders around Europe secured. To conquer the Islamic State would need a million man army and could ignite a Holy War between 1.6 billion Sunni Muslims and everyone else. After a quarter century war with America in the Levant, there is no such thing as moderate Sunni Jihadist. Other than WWIII, the only option is to quarantine the Islamic State and stop anyone else supplying them with arms and money and to secure enclaves to return the refugees home.

Clarity will be in very short supply since it means resolving the Syrian quagmire. This requires controlling corporate greed, returning the federal government the people, and forcing Israel to recognize that it is right in the middle of a Muslim world.

[jld]

Doesn't this matters more than the French bombings?
"Israeli strikes hit Syrian army on Golan"
https://twitter.com/Reuters/status/648221756705128448

[Valissa]

Shockingly, no Putin bashing here… a recent trend in the MSM…

How Vladimir Putin Set the Stage for His Talks With Obama on Syria http://time.com/4051144/vladimir-putin-obama-syria-talks/

Iraq Agrees to Share Intelligence on ISIS With Russia, Syria and Iran http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/28/world/middleeast/iraq-agrees-to-share-intelligence-on-isis-with-russia-syria-and-iran.html

Iraq turns to Russia in fight against Islamic State https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/iraq-turns-to-russia-in-fight-against-islamic-state/2015/09/27/18e091d5-c4d6-4edb-9517-e7b12f5781ec_story.html

[Valissa]

FYI everyone, Vladimir Putin interview with Charlie Rose is on 60 minutes tonight 7:30-9:00 pm Eastern time following the Bills vs. Dolphins game, so it may start late.

Putin reveals what he admires most about America http://www.cbsnews.com/news/preview-russian-president-vladimir-putin-interview-with-charlie-rose-60-minutes/

Another segment will be an interview with Donald Trump.

Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump open new '60 Minutes' season on CBS http://www.nola.com/tv/index.ssf/2015/09/vladimir_putin_donald_trump_op.html

[robt willmann]

The Syrian situation is starting to get even more tight. It had seemed to me not long ago when I mentioned it that Russia would most likely do just about everything short of a nuclear war to maintain a Syrian state at least in the western part that has the Mediterranean Sea as part of a western border. Unfortunately, the U.S. gangster foreign policy continues its quest to overthrow the governments of states that do not say, "Yes, master", as with Syria. Russia rationally and logically wants to maintain a warm water port with open sea around it, especially in that part of the world.

Tonight, Sunday, 27 September, part of an interview of Vladimir Putin by Charlie Rose will be shown on the CBS 60 Minutes program. Then, the entire interview will be on Rose's show on 28 and 29 September--

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/preview-president-putin/

Charlie Rose is a promoter of the neocon policies, although he is careful how he does it so it does not appear too blatant. And when he has any of the financial hucksters on his program, he shamelessly lobs beach balls to them that they can knock around however they please.

After the last Republican presidential primary debate, David Stockman wrote an article about Carly Fiorina and her awful and dangerous policy statements that Stockman surmises she memorized from flash cards. Stockman was a Congressman, and then was the Director of the Office of Management and Budget from 1981-85 during president Reagan's first term. Stockman subsequently got involved in the corporate takeover racket, but for the last several years he seems to be doing a type of penance by writing a book and articles, starting an Internet website, and appearing on television the few times he is allowed to, and speaking out against the outrageous financial and economic fraud that has been harming the economy and country. Stockman understands the private sector financial game, because he participated in it, and he knows the mare's nest of U.S. government budgeting and finance, as he was the main man during Reagan's first term. Here is his article about Fiorina, in which he talks about her nutty foreign policy statements, including on Syria, and then describes her disgraceful performance at Lucent Technologies and the Hewlett-Packard company--

http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/clueless-carly-crony-capitalist-war-monger-with-flash-cards/

If I remember correctly, when Fiorina wanted Hewlett-Packard (HP) to buy the Compaq computer company, there was still a member of the Hewlett family on the board of directors and / or was a large stockholder, and he was part of a lawsuit to try to stop the merger. I think at that time HP was incorporated in Delaware, as are many U.S. corporations, because of its favorable corporate laws. I think Fiorina testified at a court hearing. However, the lawsuit failed and the merger was not blocked.

Who can forget the functional and durable HP calculators, designed for specific and practical uses. I bought an HP laser printer around 1995 that still works. HP was (past tense) a great company in the true American sense of entrepreneurship.

[Lars]

As has been mentioned before, it is a fairly common American habit of trying everything that does not work before finally trying something that does. Since they have been fighting each other in that area for something like 10K years, I have little hope it will end anytime soon.

[confusedponderer]

'demerder' is indeed pretty much like 'scheissen der bed' or rather, 'das bett vollscheißen'.

A good deal of the current dissatisfaction on the part of Germany with US schemes for Syria and of the unexpected sympathy for Russian schemes to not seeing Syria ending up like Libya have a lot to do with refugees and us, i.e. Germany being required to absorb, unasked and without choice, the cost of plain irresponsible and decidedly not in our interest US (and Gulfie, and Saudo, and Israli and Turkish) foreign policy.

Merkel will have to answer for why she has allowed let to slip things so far. On Ukraine and here she's saying the right things, too late, as if having just awoken from a long slumber.

No matter. US foreign policy atm is about aressing the effects of the shit having hit the fan, with the US position being that there is a crisis that needs fixing, irrespecive of what caused it in the first place, take for instance an idiotic US desire to see Assad Jr's head on a spike no matter what the cost, and general anger about its effects.

If one wants an illustration how the child crusaders are being regarded by grown ups, just take this picture:

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02873/US-Russia-ambassad_2873281b.jpg

Look at the body language. Powers is exasperated, her Russian colleague is quietly put off as if aking himself 'WTF?!'. The people in background are near laughing out loud, thinking the same, sympathising with then Russian. Ideologues vs. pros.

Let's all hope and pray that DC gets what Powers doesn't.

[oofda]

Robt- saw the interview of Putin by Charlie Rose. He IS a promoter of neocon policies. Some of his questions were right out of the neocon playbook- he was almost rude at times. Putin handled him easily. One can tell he was a member of the 'organs', as they say in Russia

[MartinJ]

I can only imagine the collective consternation in Washington, Tel Aviv, Riyadh and Ankara at the gall of Russia to enter the fray so boldly. Its as if they had never countenanced such a play particularly as everyone - well, let's exclude Washington - was drunk on the imminent downfall of Assad and were busy figuring out the details of how the coup de grace was to be administered.

The thought crosses my mind that Washington (Obama and the NeoCons) must be more confused than the rest. After all they are the sole superpower and, until this moment, have had the ability to somewhat restrain allies or decide when and how to enter the fray, no matter how tentatively. This is the Middle East, and it is for the US to propose or dispose, even if that results in Iraq post 2003, not for anyone else.

That Russia has done this in defiance of this "logic" means that the US will be forced to act in some way in order to show to the media that it is still in control of the situation.

- Massive help to the Kurds?
- Increased and expanded air campaign?
- A denouncement of Turkey and Russia to generate "noise"?
- Increased calls for Assad to go?
- or, perhaps, more support for Ukrainian rebels? A kind of petty punishment.

[ex-PFC Chuck]

It looks like yet another dimension is about to be added to the deconfliction challenge in the environs of Syria. Per the English edition of Pravda (the original one, not Pravda on the Potomac): Chinese Navy sets off for Syria
http://english.pravda.ru/news/world/25-09-2015/132137-china-0/

[turcopolier]

CP

"Demerder" means something quite different from "enmerder." pl

[Fred]

CP,

When was that taken? She looks like a distressed adjunct professor not an Ambassador to the United Nations.

[confusedponderer]

Ah, systeme D ... excuse my french.

[William R. Cumming]

An interesting interview of Putin by Charlie Rose on SIXTY MINUTES last night.

[confusedponderer]

Fred,
it was in this article:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sponsored/rbth/business/10745765/crimea-us-un-russia-sanctions.html

[LeaNder]

Interesting image. And quite well observed.

Can you help me find the photograph? I would also like to know how the image was used:

http://tinyurl.com/Telegraph-SP-UN

[LeaNder]

I won't look at the link, but without aware of the debate here, Hollande apparently supports the theme that Assad must go. If I am to trust German public channel news, that is. ;)

[BostonB]

I remember when Petraeus was tapped as the great counterinsurgency expert and savior of the U.S. war in Iraq. At that time Charlie Rose interviewed him and couldn't have been more ass-kissing. It was embarrassing. The next week I happened to run into Rose at Reagan National Airport. I asked him, "So, do you think Petraeus got his extensive counterinsurgency knowledge from four years of reading books in Princeton, New Jersey, or from four years of reading books in the Hudson Valley?" He laughed, so I guess he got my point.

[MartinJ]

ISW's Kagan with a good mix of analysis of Russia's capabilities, an extrapolation of possible intentions in Syria, and fear mongering for the US, Turkey and Israel - just to remind the people of who is in "our" unannounced coalition against Assad and ISIS.

"Moscow may well intend at this point nothing more than helping keep Assad in power, but the airfield, particularly if advanced, long-range, multi-role fighters like the Flanker stay there, gives Vladimir Putin dramatic new capabilities against Turkey, Israel, and the U.S. Sixth Fleet."

http://understandingwar.org/sites/default/files/CTP%20ISW%20Putin%20Ushers%20in%20a%20New%20Era%20of%20Global%20Geopolitics%20%281%29.pdf

[turcopolier]

martin J

Capability must always be considered at the strategic level but it does not equate to intention. pl

[David Habakkuk]

MartinJ,

From the ISW report:

'Understanding the Kremlin's intentions at a basic level is not really very hard, though. Russian President Vladimir Putin certainly means to deter the U.S.-led coalition from attacking the forces of Syrian President Bashar al Assad, establishing any sort of no-fly zone, or taking any meaningful action that might harm Assad's forces. He also means to forge a counter-alliance consisting of Russia, Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanese Hezbollah and demonstrate that his coalition is more effective than the West's. He intends, finally, to establish a permanent foothold in the Middle East from which he can threaten NATO's southern flank directly, project power into the Mediterranean and the Arab World, and generally re-create Russia's aura as a global power. He may have more complicated objectives in mind as well, but the State Department should be able at least to recognize these.'

An analysis of intentions, presented without an iota of evidence to support it. Amateurish, don't you think?