When Will Obama Bomb Ukraine?

No, come on now, this is ridiculous. It’s not even that it’s ridiculous. It’s a complete farce. U.S. President Barack Obama announced today for the whole world to hear that the U.S. Air Force will soon launch strikes against militants from the Islamic State in Syria. I remember sitting in a cafe in Damascus exactly one year ago and looking up at the sky — the Syrians expected that at any moment American missiles would rain down upon the city: Washington was going to “punish” Bashar al-Assad’s regime. That time war was averted, but consider how marvelously the situation has changed in such a short time … now the U.S., without a moment’s hesitation, is going to “rub out” the Syrian president’s very enemies. Charming, isn’t it? Just think, for four long years America created, armed and financed the Syrian opposition … and now, when its militants put videos of U.S. citizens with their heads cut off on the Internet, America suddenly gets it — yes, it looks like something isn’t right here.

It’s amusing, but the entire history of the United States is one of wars with former friends and allies. First, from 1980 to 1988, the Americans armed Iraq as a counterweight to Islamist Iran: they delivered the latest weapons, provided credit and sent advisers. But then Iraq invaded Kuwait and pro-American dictator Saddam Hussein suddenly became enemy number one. In Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989, the anti-Soviet resistance was given support, billions of dollars were spent on the Mujahedeen, and as a result the schizophrenic Taliban government came to power in Kabul and before long the horrific terrorist attacks took place in New York. It’s the same thing with Libyan dictator Gaddafi, overthrown with the active assistance of the U.S.: less than a year after the revolution, the grateful “fighters for democracy” killed the American ambassador to Libya and burned down the American consulate in Benghazi. There you go, the same mistakes again and again. How much longer can this go on?

Perhaps the problem is as follows. After the end of the Cold War, the professionals in the State Department died off: like the mammoths, they went extinct. Previously, real wolves like Brzezinski and Kissinger prowled about more often in American politics: now glamorous lambs with elementary school-level knowledge are grazing there — well, everyone has seen Jennifer Psaki. Thus, if a revolt rises up against Eastern despots like Gaddafi or Assad, the lambs squeal with delight — oooh, just what we need! Evil will be punished, democracy will reign … American-style democracy, naturally. Of course the insurgents will choose American-style democracy; after all, there’s basically no better system, right? “There never has been, is not, and never will be any authority in this world greater or better for people than the authority of the emperor Tiberius!” *

They start by helping the “fighters for democracy.” With weapons. With money. With advisers. The “fighters” willingly take it all, but they fight in a slightly peculiar way — for example, slaughtering whole villages of innocent civilians. In Washington, they turn a blind eye — you can’t make an omelet without breaking some eggs. Democracy will balance everything out. But then, when from the fine detachments of insurgents out crawls an ugly, bloody, bandaged face with “Allahu Akbar” written all over its forehead, Washington is somewhat embarrassed. Indeed, how strange. And where in the world is the democracy?

If creatures on the level of Psaki weren’t sitting around at the State Department, they would have read a little of Syria’s modern history. And they would have found out the facts: Islamists have always been strong there. From 1979 to 1982, militants from the Muslim Brotherhood seized entire cities like Hama, organized mass protests, and in the fighting 80,000 people were killed on both sides: with considerable effort, the uprising was put down, but the Islamist underground, keeping its head down, had long been biding its time. And its time came — thanks to the sage policy of the United States, where officials’ level of knowledge doesn’t allow them to thumb through a text in their spare time … it’s not a fact that they even know how to read. Now the dragon has been released from the dungeon, and it doesn’t care whom it devours: a dragon, on account of its savage nature, has no need for democracy, and for a monster the Americans are the very same enemies as the Syrian government. The president of Syria, Bashar al-Assad, portrayed in the American press as a murderous, evil spirit, can sit back in his easy chair with a cup of coffee, smile and relax: now Obama will zealously begin to destroy his regime’s opponents — the very same “friends” he meticulously and lovingly created for the “establishment of democracy” in Damascus. Honestly, if I were in the shoes of yet another friend of the United States — Ukraine — I would begin to ponder, watching the situation in Syria … how soon will Obama bomb Kiev?

*Translator’s note: Here the author is quoting the words of Pontius Pilate in Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita.