Putin Prods West to Cooperate on Syria

1. Bashar al-Assad, Flying High

   By PATRICK CHAPPATTE

   With a little help from Putin.

   
2. October 23, 2015

   Op-Ed Contributor

   The Myth­ of Putin’s Strategic Genius

   By MICHAEL A. McFAUL

   The West should see Russia’s intervention in Syria as a desperate gamble, not a brilliant gambit.

   
3. October 22, 2015

   Putin, Citing Key Moment, Prods West to Cooperate on Syria

   By NEIL MacFARQUHAR

   The Russian president said Damascus was willing to make common cause with the armed opposition as long as they were willing to fight the Islamic State.

   
   

   It is very difficult to fathom whether Putin is Sincere about this or whether it is another strategic ploy or what it is? Because most of all Putin needs higher oil prices and friends to help him create higher oil prices. One way to do that might be to engage the U.S. and NATO in destroying ISIS together. The real problem with this is ISIS is a movement more than it is an army. So, in order to ever totally defeat ISIS you would have to short circuit somehow the movement. Fighting ISIS directly by Russia and the U.S. is EXACTLY what ISIS wants. So, you absolutely cannot give that to them unless you want 10 times the ISIS soldiers and volunteers going to Syria and Iraq from Sunni countries. So, though an alliance with Putin might be strategic for him, for the U.S. it would be something else entirely at this point.

   
   

   ISIS, Assad and even Iran are all sort of smoke and mirrors mostly at this point, so there is absolutely nothing the U.S. or NATO can trust about any of them in any way. But, what about Putin? I think  Putin doesn't really have a clue about how bad the situation actually is in Syria or Iraq by the way he is acting now. However, hopefully with the Russian military there they will do some research and tell him just how bad this situation really is, not only for the present but also for the next 1, 10, 20, 50 or 100 years or more too.

   
   

   Then if you add to this that the Middle East, AFrica, South America and everywhere else near the equator is going to lose 23% of it's growing capacity from the long term effects of Global Warming and you see it is even much worse than that.

   
   

   Also, I can't now quote any of the above articles for the New York Times online without subscribing which is something I don't usually do at present. But, if you haven't read to many articles this months (I think we are limited to 10 a piece) you can read if you just click on the word buttons above and read them there.