Will Russia's advanced missiles protect Syria from intervention?
Russia
has sent advanced antiship missiles to Syria in what U.S. officials
called a "show of force." Moscow is one of embattled Syrian President
Bashar al-Assad's last allies — and his most powerful. Moscow long ago
admitted that it had supplied arms to Syria — including missiles — but
insisted it…
Will Russia's advanced missiles prevent U.S. intervention in Syria?
The sophisticated weapons could make any Western attempt to impose a blockade or no-fly zone more dangerous
A Russian S-300 anti-aircraft missile system in on display in an undisclosed location in Russia.
AP Photo
R
ussia
has sent advanced antiship missiles to Syria in what U.S. officials
called a "show of force." Moscow is one of embattled Syrian President
Bashar al-Assad's last allies — and his most powerful. Moscow long ago
admitted that it had supplied arms to Syria — including missiles — but
insisted it only sent defensive systems. The sophisticated,
radar-targeting these Yahkont antiship missiles have, however, would
give Assad the ability to go on offense if the U.S. and other foreign
countries try to intervene on behalf of the rebels in Syria's civil war.The immediate fear is that this beefing-up of Assad's arsenal would make it more dangerous for the U.S. and other nations should they choose to further support rebels by imposing a blockade or otherwise plunge into the fight more directly. Ed Morrissey at Hot Air explains that these weapons "would allow Syria to fight any NATO or U.S. attempt to impose a no-fly zone." Russia denies reports of the arms sale, but Morrissey dismisses that as a transparent fib. "Russia has now clearly come down as an opponent of Western intervention, to the point of armed conflict by proxy." So much for the canard that post-Soviet Russia is not an enemy, he says:
Russia just upped the ante on
intervention, and the question will be whether politicians in the U.S.
use that opportunity to get realistic about the choices in Syria or beat
war drums over the need to look "credible." [Hot Air]
The missiles are only one part of Russia's increasingly aggressive stand on Syria. The Wall Street Journal reports
that Moscow also has sent at least a dozen warships to patrol near its
naval base in Syria, which Russia sees as its foothold in the Middle
East. U.S. and European officials, the Journal says, "see this
as a newly aggressive stance meant partly to warn the West and Israel
not to intervene in Syria's bloody civil war."
The buildup is seen as
Moscow's way of trying to strengthen its hand in any talks over Syria's
future and buttress its influence in the Middle East. It also provides
options for evacuating tens of thousands of Russians still in Syria...
Moscow and Washington have
worked publicly in recent days to assemble an international conference
involving Damascus. But expectations are low that the meeting could lead
to a political transition, as tensions have heightened around the
region, and with the U.S. and Russia backing opposing camps. [Wall Street Journal]
Of course, the danger in Syria isn't just that the civil war — which
has already killed more than 70,000 Syrians and driven millions more
from their homes — will drag on longer than it might have because of
Russia. "Equally the real concern about the Yakhont may be their
potential transfer to Syria's Lebanese ally Hezbollah," says Jonathan Marcus at BBC News.
"Israel has made it clear that a transfer of the Yakhont represents a
red line that could prompt more air strikes against Syrian arms depots."
That means Moscow may have just increased the odds that Syria's war
will spill over its borders.
http://theweek.com/article/index/244390/will-russias-advanced-missiles-protect-syria-from-intervention#
Does this remind you of the old Cold War or what? Anyway you look at it the people in Syria are really screwed it looks like in both the short and long term. The rebels from Syria and around the world aren't going to give up and neither it looks like are Russia and Iran. So, what does that do?: Stalemate! Bomb craters in Syria as long as this stalemate lasts between rebels and Russia and Iran. Syria as a country no longer really exists only a no man's land of war ongoing it looks like for the foreseeable future. The only question might be who is less likely to give up in Syria: Al Qaeda or Russia and Iran? What happens when an immovable object meets and irresistible force? Strange times we live in. I really don't see any of them giving up for 10 or more years and maybe not even then. Likely more and more Islamists and Al Qaeda types will keep on coming and likely Russia and Iran won't give up. But where does that leave Assad and the Syrian people? Millions of refugees from Syria around the world for years and years to come. That's what it looks like today.
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