War in Syria Puts US Between a Rock and a Hard Place

The war in Syria has put the U.S. between a rock and a hard place. That country’s policy of isolating its enemies has stopped working. In addition, the Russia-China-Iran bloc that has formed around the Syria issue has begun to pose a tangible threat to American interests on the international arena. This bloc is not institutionalized, but no one has doubts as to its existence.

New circumstances call for new approaches and new policy instruments. The U.S. has quickly and precisely struck at three of its partners in the war in Syria. The first to find himself in the crosshairs was Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who had his hands full with the latest color revolution in Taksim Square. The second target was Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, the emir of Qatar, who was respectfully but unceremoniously removed from his position along with Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, who possesses millions of dollars and owns Qatar’s Foreign Investment Company. Finally, the third strike was carried out on Egypt, where the Tamarod opposition movement was founded literally a month and a half before the latest uprising by people who actively participated in the 2011 Tahrir revolution and the anti-Mubarak organization Kefaya. Tamarod quickly set about its work and stirred up popular dissent, which provided the military with a pretext to carry out the coup.

On top of that, the new emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim, is going against the will of his father’s supporters: the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas in Palestine and the Libyan Salabi brothers. This is likely a demonstration on the part of the young emir that he has a right to the throne. Still, his actions do not mean much. The Syrian opposition has chosen Ahmad Jarba as its leader. Jarba is married to a relative of the wife of the Saudi Arabian king and was elected over Mustapha al-Dabagh, a pro-Qatar minion. The Syrian opposition put Qatar, which for a time had been trying to make itself look like a superpower, in its place. Now Saudi Arabia is at the forefront of the Syria situation, and it is putting all its money on the Middle East’s most radical elements, the Salafi Muslims.

Taking into account that Saudi Arabia is now itself under threat of collapsing in the near future because of confusion and ambiguities in the system of succession, it is safe to say that America’s new policy in the Middle East will be to undermine the stability of not only individual countries, but also of the entire region. The Middle East must be sent back to the Stone Age. Millions of residents in the region will finally be jolted out of their normal lives and become but a source of energy for worldwide jihad.

The incitement of Sunni-Shiite conflict, to which the West’s strategy and ideology are slowly but surely leading, will lead to the fulfillment of the first goal of this jihad — the disintegration of the fledgling coalition between Russia, Iran and China. In each of these countries, it will lead to tension and confrontations with radical Islamists. It will force each country to busy itself with its own problems at the expense of the bloc’s interests. The recent developments in Xinjiang, where Uighur separatists yet again wrought havoc on police buildings, should remind China of its vulnerability due to this extremely pressing issue.

The scandal surrounding a strange man by the name of Edward Snowden has affected both China and Russia, and the harsh statements from the U.S. are not helping matters. Russia-based Islamists, taking up arms in Syria, and the formation of jihadist structures in the Volga region, the northern part of the country, and the Ukrainian Crimea, are all ill omens for Russia. Iran has its own headache: Afghanistan. Now that NATO has taken its leave and the Taliban — with whom the Iranian ayatollah has absolutely irreconcilable disagreements — has inevitably come back to power, the atomization of the bloc will become completely feasible.

Smaller members of the bloc, such as Lebanon and Iraq, are already under fire. The explosion that occurred today [Tuesday, July 9] in a mostly Shiite neighborhood of Beirut bears witness to new attempts to drag the country into a civil war. The terrorist al-Nusra Front in Iraq aims to overturn the governments of both Syria and Iraq.

One thing the United States cannot be faulted for is the ability to quickly and efficiently admit its miscalculations and design new projects. Even when those projects are based on false grounds, this promptness gives the U.S. an advantage in taking initiative. It is the U.S. that chooses the place, time and course of action. Everyone else must simply react, not even attempting to forestall these actions.