The Obama administration on Tuesday criticized Russia for sending attack helicopters to Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime as the bloody conflict worsens amid meddling from foreign powers.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the U.S. was “concerned about the latest information we have that there are attack helicopters on the way from Russia to Syria.”
The shipment “will escalate the conflict quite dramatically,” she said at a speaking event with Israeli President Shimon Peres at the Brookings Institute.
Foreign meddling on behalf of all sides in Syria has been instrumental in prolonging the conflict by emboldening both sides and making a political settlement more remote. Russia is not likely to be persuaded by Western powers to drop its support of Assad, especially since support for the rebel militias – who have also committed serious crimes – from the West and the Gulf Arab states is unlikely to end in kind.
Russia’s stake in Syria provides Moscow with valuable geo-political influence. The only way they would give that up is if they could be assured that Washington and its allies would not try to exploit a political transition for their own interests, which is virtually an impossibility.
Additionally, Russia’s support of Syria is probably one of the primary reasons the U.S. and its allies have opposed direct military action in the form of bombing campaigns or ground troops against the Assad regime. In that sense, Russian support has prevented a much worse conflict.
The prospect for ending the bloodshed in Syria largely depends upon the foreign powers meddling in its internal politics and whether or not they will give up their own interventionist policies in exchange for an end to intractable violence.
While the U.S. condemned the Russian sale of attack helicopters to the Syrian regime, the Pentagon is currently buying attack helicopters from the very same Russian arms firm selling them to Syria. Senator John Cornyn, in a letter to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Monday, said he was “deeply troubled that the DoD (Department of Defense) would knowingly do business with a firm that has enabled mass atrocities in Syria.”
What Cornyn doesn’t understand is that the U.S. doesn’t object to mass atrocities and their enablers in principle.
so says the world's number one arms dealer.
Russia: US sending Syria weapons.
The last sentence is absolutely hilarious. Doesn't John Glaser pay any attention to recent history?
Supplying arms to dictators is the job of the US.
The only reason why the US didn't step in is because they are afraid of Russia period.
I like how Glaser equates Russia's legal and legitimate support of a UN member state…with US and Gulf states support for an illegal terrorist group, ie the rebels…
Btw just read a real report from a real journalist…Thierry Meyssan, who is in Damascus…
Guess what…Putin has drawn a line in the sand…couple of days ago Russia test fired their new Bulava ICBM from a Russian sub in the Mediterranean…shot across the bow…?
http://www.voltairenet.org/Russian-Warning-Shots
Meyssan reports that Russia is looking at US invasion of Libya as Hitler's invasion of Czechoslovakia…and an invasion of Syria would be viewed as the Nazi invasion of Poland which started WW2…
Thierry Meyssan is not a "real journalist" in my book. Rather the type to go for the sensationalistic conspiracy stuff indeed.
Meyssan is one of the few sane voices reporting on the ground. If we only listened to the lunatics braying on Fox or CBS, etc., we'd never know anything but the usual propaganda.
The Russian's big mistake was not drawing the line in the sand Libya. Better late then never. Someone has to stop the US from bankrupting themselves……..
JK
Whatever happens in syria is up to the syrians. The russians are the ones keeping the peace. Keeping the zionists at bay. With that being said, there are no good guys in this situation. Syria IS a backward cold war style country with a minority government/dictatorship. But the western side is no good either because they want to install a zionist government on the syrian people, but in doing so will only embolden the radical elements in syria causing an even worse anti zionist state. The russians are not the good guys either because they are supporting a repressive regime that is murdering its own people.
But the western side is no good either because they want to install a zionist government
——–
Zionist government? More like Islamist government.
One reason for Israel's relative silence on the matter is the fact that Israel knows that the coming Sunni regime will have much greater sympathy for the Palestinians than the Alawites ever did.
Imagine Assad's arsenal of SAM's finding its way into the West Bank.
There is only a little bit of truth there and a lot of misinformation…
The idea that Russians are supporting a repressive regime that is murdering its own people is the mainstream media narrative here in the west…the truth is actually that this insurrection was entirely a project of foreign powers led by the US…and its Gulf proxies…
So we hardly have a situation where there is anything resembling a government "murdering" its own people…the government forces are responding to an armed rebellion that is mercenary in nature and largely composed of foreign fighters…
Is the Syrian regime repressive…?…yes there are elements of that…but if we consider that powerful foreign elements like the CIA are running big time operations in Syria, then it is hardly surprising that there is a well developed security apparatus that is trying to keep that in check…
"The idea that Russians are supporting a repressive regime that is murdering its own people is the mainstream media narrative here in the west…the truth is actually that this insurrection was entirely a project of foreign powers led by the US…and its Gulf proxies… "
Why can't it be both?
Any comparisons with the Bahrain situation where western tanks and "antiriot" gear were used against protestors, hmmm? Nah, that situation is, like, TOTALLY different.
So Russia supplied Mi-24s to Syria. Big deal.
If the US can provide Israel with bombs, F-16s, F-15s, 155mm artillery when Israel bombs Gaza, then why can't Russia provide Syria with weapons when its faced with a Saudi/NATO-backed Islamist uprising?
America still acts as if it has any moral authority to comment on these matters.
Hillary Clinton was quite happy to supply weapons to Bahrain even though the despotic government of that country is repressing its peoples desire for democracy. Does she realize how stupid she appears or is it that the Washington political scene is so "in-bred" that it doesn't matter?
this is the case of pot calling the kettle black.
Hillary Clinton must stop alienating the American democracy by acting as hypocrite, that is to say if there is such thing as democracy even exist or people as Hillary Clinton have any respect for what is left of it. You simply cannot have two language or three and using the fourth one when is suitable, this is hypocrisy, this is simply showing that this lady have no respect for anything but for those who have hired her to harm people in middle east and in Africa. What did you expect from Russian to send to Syria, the kind of terrorists that US and NATO countries are supporting…? or did Hillary expect for russian to send puppet toys – mercenaries – solders to kill those who are not willing to cooperate with terrorist….
patriothere:
Listen, as a sovereign UN member Syria has the right to domestically, defend itself from foreign aggression as well as foreign backed terrorists. What US call "collaterage damage in it´s occupations thousands of miles from it´s shores might be "legal" "collaterage damage" in Syria.
But that has never happened, if you pay attention to other news media than CNN/BBC/FOX & Co it is the NATO mercenaries, most notably Al-Qa'ida that slits civilian throats in Syria (in order to provoke a western onslaught & regime change). Not the Assad government and a majority of Syrians nor their supporters, such as Russia, China BRICS and the rest of the non-anglo-american world, has anything to gain from such atrocities.
It has always been the US/Israel, same as Iraq, who began this conflict by sending arms and cash to groups of disidents and foreign, most likely CIA and MOSSAD agents infiltrating Syria. That's nothing new, it has happend before in Iran not so long ago and many other countries (Latin America) in the 70 and 80ties.
Beside all the other matters involving Syria and what is called "Arab Spring", which in reality is a religious highjacked uprising supported by the EU and US antagonism in their foreign policies, which is not the first time nor is going to be their last, one thing is for sure, no matter how these professional politicians have come up with the idea dividing people in religious or tribal terms in middle east and in Africa these religious groups – grouping thinking that all is good and will be good in time.., question is: when is a good time for a functioning democracy when you have all these religious rising above the word democracy and don't give a shhhhhhiiiite about the word.., here in time they are going to be the west enemies no matter what due to the fact in religious differences.
In that regard they already have shown it in practical terms in Libya, Tunnies and they will in Syria if the supported terrorist groups can win the war in Syria. We have said that from the beginning, there is no democracy in US nor in EU for the moment, democracy simply manipulated and by mistakes after mistakes and empty promise after another, not the functioning part of democracy that is in motion is been compromised in ways that either governments are acting.
For that reasons they have no clue what democracy is or how it works, democracy is from the people, by the people and for the people, by Hillary Clinton or Obama, or Saudis and others getting involved the entire matter becomes a scenario where everyone wants to implement their own kind of democracy. Look Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton said once that the Iranian Cop de eta in 1952 was a mistake, in 2012 the Obama administration have promised democracy for the people at home by “promising” the democracy, yet non of his promises is materialized, yet the democrats are doing the same mistake as Democrats have done for last 60 years, you are doing the same mistake because you only have named yourself a democrat, but in practical terms you don't know what it is or how it works especially when it comes to foreign policy making. Bush regime was stupid if not crazy when they started the “mission" in Iraq and Afghanistan, Obama have no mission nor have a clue what is happening or why is happening and I wonder if he even talks to Hillary Clinton. Look, let the people of Syria to decide for their life, not you nor the Saudis or Quatrains kings or wimps, you need to be engaged and concentrated on the prospers of the american people by making sure that the democracy is for the people and functioning at home.
You will lose the Syrian war in time, there is no honesty in US nor NATO or English policy making, there never was such terms for NATO to expend nor NATO is going to be allowed to expend more, you got Turkey keep it, the Turkish government is good for nothing but their religious sectarian autocracy which is Saudis kingdoms and their feudalism.
US sends weapons to support the NAZI regime in izrael, helping them to commit war crimes unseen since Hitler