Putin’s Return

Reviled by the international community just a few weeks ago, Vladimir Putin is back. The Russian airstrikes in Syria could have consequences that go well beyond maintaining the regime of Bashar Assad.

It all began in 2011, when Syrians took to the streets demanding the departure of Bashar Assad. He refused. He had his men open fire on his dissenters. From that moment on, the Americans decided to arm Assad’s opponents.

In 2013, Vladimir Putin prevented the deployment of a military coalition against Syria. Putin stated that the fall of the Assad regime could lead the Middle East into a war with unforeseeable consequences. At that time, Vladimir Putin was being praised as a man with a strong understanding of strategy.

Bad Boy

Then, Putin annexed Crimea. He supported the separatists in eastern Ukraine. Vladimir Putin became a disreputable bad boy. His international influence seemed to be declining. The economic sanctions against Russia were supposed to bring him down.

During this time, the Islamic State group appeared, in all its horror. This time, the American government promised that their massive airstrikes would overcome the Islamic extremists, or at least that these strikes would slow their progress.

The Truth

However, the raw truth is starting to come out. The American airstrikes are not halting the progress of the Islamic State group. The Iraqi troops are worthless. The Syrian rebels the U.S. is arming are themselves Islamic extremists. At every opportunity, they turn against the U.S.

What can be done to defeat the cancer that is the Islamic State group? Here is where Putin re-enters the scene. This time, he is proposing a broad coalition against the Islamic State group. Yesterday, Russian planes bombed the positions of Islamic extremists in Syria.

However, unlike the American airstrikes, Putin’s offensive is supported by a real local army, the Syrian army of Bashar Assad.

Russian Maneuvering

The U.S. is already accusing Russia of not exclusively bombing Islamic State group positions, but also those of Bashar Assad’s opponents.

Of course they’re bombing the rebels! The entire operation is intended to give Bashar Assad’s army enough slack so that it can focus exclusively on the Islamic State group without fear of being attacked from behind by Assad’s opponents.

If the Russians and Syrians can ever manage to overcome the Islamic State group on Syrian soil, the prestige of the American army and all U.S. policy in the region will be called into question. Putin is perhaps trying to give Obama a hard lesson in political realism.