To bad they didn't realize this a few years back. They could have saved thousands of lives. Sorry Barry and Hillary. The "Arab Spring" plan didn't work out in Syria.
Obviously, this stance with Assad, should have been used with Saddam. I wonder how many tens of thousands would be alive today (let alone 4,000 Americans) and there would be no ISIS.
On Sep, 29 Putin basically said the same when interviewed by Charlie Rose. (By the time this interview has been published, almost half of it was cut!)
CHARLIE ROSE: The
Washington Post wrote today: "Into the vacuum of American leadership has stepped Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has dispatched troops and equipment to Syria in an effort
to force the world to accept his solution to the war, which is the creation of a new coalition to fight the Islamic State that includes the Assad government". It is interesting that they say you have stepped into a certain vacuum of American leadership. This is what
The Washington Post writes.
VLADIMIR PUTIN: We are not stepping into the vacuum of American leadership,
we are trying to prevent the creation of a power vacuum in Syria in general because as soon as the government agencies in a state, in a country, are destroyed, a power vacuum sets in, and that vacuum is quickly filled with terrorists.
This was the case in Libya and Iraq; this was the case in some other countries. The same is underway in Somalia, the same happened in Afghanistan. Challenging American leadership is not at stake.
(Comment:No surprise the above was cut!)
CHARLIE ROSE: Well, a vacuum is an issue. It seems that you are a little irritated by one point: you are talking about a strong centralized government being Russia's DNA and you have a huge fear that there is no strong government in Syria and in other countries, that there is some sort of anarchy.
VLADIMIR PUTIN: I am not saying that there is no strong government there. I mean that
if there was no government at all, there would be anarchy and a vacuum, and the vacuum and the anarchy would soon evolve into terrorism.
For instance, in Iraq, there was a famous person,
Saddam Hussein, who was either good or bad. It was at a certain stage (you might have forgotten, have you?) that
the United States actively collaborated with Saddam when he was at war with Iran: weapons were supplied, diplomatic and political support was provided, and so on. Then the US fell out with him for some reason and decided to do away with him. But when Saddam Hussein was eliminated, the Iraqi statehood and thousands of people from the former Baath party were also eliminated.
Thousands of Iraqi servicemen, who were part of the state's Sunni elite, found themselves thrown out into the street. No one gave a thought about them, and today they end up in the ISIS army. That is what we stand against.
We are not against a country exercising leadership of any kind anywhere,
we are against thoughtless actions that lead to such negative situations that are difficult to rectify.
Sott Exclusive: Full unedited text of Vladimir Putin's interview with Charlie Rose: What CBS left out -- Sott.net
