Russia Launches Airstrikes in Syria, Adding a New Wrinkle

After reading this article, I was just in shock of how terrible of a condition Syria is in right now. I'm not an expert by any means in International Politics, and honestly before this class, had barely any knowledge of international politics, but it seems to me that what Vladimir Putin did today is extremely dangerous. Putin, who is the president of Russia, ordered an airstrike in Syria today. This makes the current situation in Syria that much worse. What really stuck out to me is what are the true intentions of Russia doing this. Russia has stated that the reason they are in Syria is to fight ISIS, but the airstrike took place in the central city of Homs. Homs is not really home to ISIS, but to groups who are against Bashar al-Assad, who is Syria's president. It should be noted that Assad is an ally for Russia. I believe Russia did this just to protect Assad, with very little interest in fighting ISIS. Also, in the article they mention how this will not go over well with western Diplomats. They warned Russia that fighting opposed groups who want Assad out of power is very dangerous. To me, I could just imagine Putin responding with a yeah oh well type of attitude. He does what he wants, and when he wants. Russia did warn the United States hours before the attacks that they were conducting an air mission. I'm not sure how I feel about this. It seems that Russia is just saying watch out America, because we are going to protect Bashar al-Assad. Another interesting twist to this is that America does not want Assad in power. Americans feel that for stable peace to occur, Assad must go. It is going to be much harder to get Assad out of power now with Russia helping him. This just goes to show that states are protecting their own interests. Russia wants Assad in power, and is willing to go to great lengths to keep him there. The article also mentions other reasons for why Putin would do this, such as to draw attention away from the Ukraine conflict and there troubling economy. This is towards the bottom of the article, and before getting to this part, I was actually thinking that Putin might be doing this to draw away attention to how weak Russia is right now. From what I have read about where Russia is as a country right now, they have all seemed to agree on the fact that Russia is as weak as it may ever have been. This would be a great way for Putin to strengthen the perception of Russia. Overall, I do not believe this issue in Syria will go away anytime soon, and it's kinda of sad. I hope everything gets better in Syria, especially for the refugees.


Milto Deli


Link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/01/world/europe/russia-airstrikes-syria.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=a-lede-package-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0