Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Russia In The Middle East & Beyond

Vladamir Putin, the quasi Dictator of Russia has said that the biggest crisis of the 20th Century was the dissolution of the old Soviet Union.   Really!  You would think that the biggest crisis of the 20th Century was World War II that resulted in the deaths of 20 million Russians.  But then again, Putin was the head of the KGB, the Secret Police, in the old Soviet Union, which makes his comments more understandable.  But, what is more ominous is that Putin has said that as a result of the break up of the Soviet Union, there are 25 million ethnic Russians living in the former Soviet states that are no longer a part of Russia.  Putin says he has a problem with Russians living outside Russia.The last time we heard this reasoning in history, it was Adolf Hitler speaking of ethnic Germans living outside Germany and we know the end of that horrible story.

Of course, ethic Russians are in various countries in Eastern Europe because they were moved out of Russia by another Communist Dictator of the old Soviet Union, Josef Stalin to colonize those countries.  We see the end result when Putin is not happy; the invasion of the Ukraine, which used to be the bread basket of the old Soviet Union.  Eastern Ukraine does have a lot of ethnic Russians living there as is the case in Georgia, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia, that also used to be part of the old Soviet Union, the last three of which are members of NATO today.   Putin is not happy that he is surrounded by NATO right up to the borders of Russia.  Ultimately, Putin would like to reconstitute the old Soviet Union, so all of these countries have reason to fear this Dictator.

At the same time, Putin is moving into the Middle East, by not only putting Russian Troops and Air Force into Syria; but by developing a strong alliance with Iran, the biggest state sponsor of Terrorism in the world and by selling billions of dollars of arms to other Middle Eastern countries.  Even Israel is now cooperating with Russia related to their actions in Syria, presumably working with Dictator Bashar Assad to destroy ISIS in Syria and anybody else that opposes Assad.    Putin and the Iranians, that both support Assad, want him to remain in power, but for different reasons.

Putin wants Syria as a client state so that he can base his navy in the Mediterranean.  Iran wants Syria as a client state so that they can continue to supply Hezbollah and Hamas with weapons to destroy Israel.  This really is an unholy alliance made possible by Socialist President Pinocchio Obama's weak leadership around the world.  When there is a vacuum, it will always be filled.  In this case, Russia is filling the vacuum that Obama has created in the Middle East.  All of this can't be good for the long term National Security of the United States as Iran continues to develop nuclear weapons.    


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