Is the United States a prisoner of the power it wields and the lack of a significant military rival? For Russia’s Gazeta, columnist Fyodor Lukyanov lays out precisely what is about to happen in Syria – because as he says, once a superpower commits its forces, there can be no turning back.
For Gazeta, Fyodor Lukyanov, chief editor for Russia in Global Affairs writes in part:
By engaging in combat operations, the United States and its allies are resigning themselves to following a predetermined logic from which there will be no retreat. If a superpower takes action against a regime considered criminal, ending it without having attained a result, i.e. the elimination of that regime, is out of the question. Prestige would suffer – and they would lose their fear. … It cannot be stopped – the deeper the engagement, the keener the need to secure victory.
Having begun to participate in this campaign, the U.S. will not be able to extricate itself without displacing Bashar al-Assad – and considerations of prestige will outweigh any doubts of those apprehensive about the chaos following regime change. There are no plans as such for reconstructing Syria without Assad – yet no one can stop this now. Only later will they think about what to do next.
Neither Iraq, nor Afghanistan, nor Libya, provide any evidence that intervention leads to problem solving and effective resolution. Nevertheless, it is all being repeated again. George Bush believed in the capacity of force to transform the world; Barack Obama does not. Yet both behave identically, bereft of ideas and with no counterweight that would otherwise compel the Americans to restrain themselves. It is as if America is hostage to its own power, with everyone waiting for confirmation of its never-ending capacity to act.
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