Attempts to achieve peace through
inaction are bound to fail. Just ask the people of Aleppo. Attempts to achieve
peace through appeasement are bound to fail. Just ask Neville Chamberlain.
Peace only comes from assertive action that destroys a rampaging enemy’s will
to survive. Just ask Winston Churchill.
World War Two should have taught
us that. Doing nothing in the face of an Assad-inflicted genocide - supported
by Iran and Russia – has shown us where inaction leads.
Obama’s legacy to live up to the
vain philosophy of the Nobel Peace Prize panel lies in the ashes of Aleppo.
Obama’s dereliction of his
international and humanitarian responsibilities by failing to implement his
infamous “red lines” warning made a mockery of the Nobel Peace Prize.
His non-violent policy and impotence to act decisively to save lives gave the
green light to the resultant Syrian genocide.
It follows in the awful tradition
of Ruanda, Darfur, Sudan. Collectively it shows us that only force against
evil-doers will protect innocent lives against acts of unchallenged heinous
massacre.
When good men of influence do
nothing but complain evil triumphs.
Obama was a complainer, not a doer.
In the summer of 2013, John Kerry
called Assad’s early chemical attacks on his citizens “a moral obscenity”
for which there needed to be “accountability.” We have yet to hear from the accountants as
the death toll reaches half a million souls.
The world was watching and
waiting as Obama did nothing. Was he burdened by the weight of his Oslo peace
medal, or was he an eager proponent of “doing nothing brings peace”?
Either way, the lofty goal of peace does not come without action or sacrifice.
The Middle East remains the same
Middle East as it was before the misnamed “Arab Spring.” Powerful
dictators retain their seats of power. Erdogan, Assad, Sisi, the Ibn Sauds, the
Mullahs in Tehran. Al-Qaida has been outmatched by the more lethal ISIS,
another hideous apparition that was dismissed and untouched by Obama.
To stay alive in this bloodbath
of a region one must remain strong, tough and vigilant. Appeasement is not an
option. It is perceived as weakness and the weak are devoured by the predators
of which there are many, hunting alone or in packs for their prey.
To intolerant regimes with global
agendas, extending an olive branch is a joke. Realism, sharp awareness of the
reality of the neighbourhood, a clear-eyed identification of the players and
their ambitions is required. This, not the faulty pretence of viewing a virtual
utopian world, is the only strategy to navigate the dangerous course to calmer
waters.
So, although Obama, in his final
days, tells whoever cares to listen that Russia is the evil enemy. Putin is no
Mr. Nice-Guy but neither was Josef Stalin. He killed more people than Hitler
but that didn’t stop Roosevelt and Churchill from collaborating with this
bloody dictator in the war against Nazi Germany.
Israel is an example of the
application of pragmatic politics. It has collaborated with Moscow in its
national security needs. Recently it has taken essential military actions
against selected targets within Syria. Israel is well aware that Moscow
controls Assad’s territory. There is an operational agreement borne out of a
number of high profile meetings between Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu and
Russian leader Putin and lower level coordination between the two sides that
allows Israel to take out and destroy sophisticated weaponry supplied by Iran
via the Syrian regime to Lebanese Islamic Hezbollah that could be used in
potential future attacks against the Jewish State. The silence from Russia to these Israeli
attacks is significant.
With Assad regaining territory
strengthening his once teetering grip on power it seems increasingly certain that
no one is going to remove this Syrian dictator. Obama had the chance and blew
it.
Assad, for all his faults, never
seriously threatened Israel. Under a Trump presidency, the possibility opens up
to coordinate with Putin over a future Syria in which the Russians will
continue to protect Assad, but also coordinate with America and operate jointly
to defeat ISIS, persuade the Iranians to withdraw their Hezbollah proxies so as
not to threaten Israel from the Golan Heights, and to dedicate safe zones in
which Syrian refugees can be returned, housed and fed until it becomes possible
for them to be more permanently housed.
This could be a joint
Russian-American led operation with the funding coming from the surrounding
Arab states and supervised by United Nations agencies.
In other words, the noble purpose
of the Nobel Peace Prize will be revived through affirmative, even military,
action.
Barry Shaw,
Senior Associate for Public Diplomacy,
Israel Institute for Strategic Studies.
No comments:
Post a Comment