THE COLD WAR COMEBACK

By Simon Fischler

Anyone who thinks that the Cold War is over does not understand Vladimir Putin nor his dreams of returning Russia to its former glory.

Today’s Cold War battlefield is Syria and the stakes are higher than in the past.

Needless to say but the situation never had to reach this grim and exceedingly dangerous point.

However the boiling point has been reached because of the Obama administration’s knack for blundering at every point.  Simply put, the White House hasn’t a clue when it comes to doing right by the world.  

Had the dean of indecisiveness, Obama, backed the secular rebels at the beginning of the rebellion against Bashar al-Assad a positive humane result would have developed. 

At that time there was every opportunity for the Americans to have ousted Assad while simultaneously dealing a crippling blow to Russia, Iran and Hezbollah while also keeping Al-Qaida out of the Syrian opposition.

Tragically for Syria, American and most of the civilized world, Obama sat on his hands and tragedy piled on tragedy – latest Syrian death count has reached 150,000.

Obama and his administration were incapable of stepping in when necessary. It resulted in a complete failure by the democracy that is supposed to defend the free countries of the world.

After the president revealed an American red line -- if Assad employed chemical weapons America would retaliate --  he abysmally failed to back it up when the Syrian regime used chemical weapons on its citizens; more than once.

The numbers of dead at the hands of the Assad regime have already passed those of the Balkan wars (100,000) and are inching towards the numbers from Burundi and Rwanda (“800,000 dead in Burundi”, “500,000 – 1,000,000 dead in Rwanda”).  

It strains credulity to realize that murder on such a massive scale as that being carried on in Syria still can happen in the 21^st. century. 

The fact that the United Nations and America are powerless to stop genocide at the hands of dictatorships such as Russia, Syria and a theocracy like Iran means nothing has been learned from the Holocaust.

America must stop sitting on the fence in Syria. It is imperative that Obama take charge of the Syrian disaster area.

The Russian Fox, Putin, is praying on America's lack of leadership. It is a major disaster that Egypt has signed a weapons agreement with Putinstan. Egypt, so painstankenly pried from soviet hands at the price of Israel giving back the Sinai peninsula, is an ally America should think twice about losing. 

Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Israel -- are all watching to see if America makes the right decisions 

At the moment it’s evident that Jihadists have taken advantage of America’s inability to help the Syrian people.

However there still is time for Obama, Inc. to change the outcome. Obama can still stand up to the Putin, Assad, Hezbollah and Iran axis.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah, Iran and their backers Russia remain bigger problems. Both Hezbollah and Iran are more powerful than Al Qaida and both are driven by the Shia, end of days belief. 

Both Iran and Hezbollah have the same colonialist aspirations for the Levant and the Middle-East as Al Qaida and both, unlike Al Qaida, have the ability to implement it if Iran goes nuclear and America continues to behave like a paper tiger.