The continued efforts by Russia to protect the brutal dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad and block efforts to encourage compliance with Kofi Annan’s peace plan will only prolong and extend the escalating bloodshed in Syria.
There is no serious prospect, or appetite, for outside military intervention in that country, beyond that admitted to by the Iranian regime in May (which, curiously, goes unremarked by those on the Left who see Western imperialist plots in everything to do with Syria). The remaining alternatives are the bloody and deeply divisive civil war that is unfolding, with fighting now in Damascus itself, or Annan’s attempt to broker a settlement in the context of a ceasefire, the only credible, internationally accepted strategy for halting the slaughter.
Russia’s attitude toward the Annan plan is bloodyminded obstinacy in refusing to countenance any Security Council measures that may strengthen the chances of the plan being taken seriously by the isolated Assad.
The result will be more casualties, more massacres as the regime panics and lashes out, and less chance of a durable post-conflict settlement being established once Assad is removed.
“Russia’s attitude toward the Annan plan is bloodyminded obstinacy” , and is your outlook anything other than bloodyminded ignorance?
Perhaps the reason some people see a ‘conspiracy’ in anything do with the Western (read USA) initiatives, is because history shows, without any doubt, that this is precisely what to expect.
To see anything other than the heavy hand of US imperialism in this, is a level of naivety that is difficult to credit to a supposed news journal.
How does Russia’s attitude differ from the USA in its blocking of UN votes on Israel ? The only difference is that the USA has been doing it for decades in addition to providing 5 billion a year in aid to Israel since 1948 . I wasn,t aware Israel was a third world country as I thought it was doing better economically , until recently at least , better than the USA .
And how is protecting Saddam Hussein for 40 years any different. Or various Israeli war criminls, or the Saudis and even the murderous taliban.
Don’t suffocate on your self righteousness now will you.
Like other posters, I didn’t find this anonymous editorial convincing. How likely is it that Assad will be removed any time soon? He is supported by significant parts of the population and society, including by the military.
This anonymous editorial is weird. Assuming the writer is actually a journalist I find the level of knowledge on the subject somewhat appalling, and from the perspective of a subscriber to Crikey, a little bit of a concern given that I have paid money to this publication in an effort to get at least a modicum of objective reporting.