Russian threat to target US aircraft in Syria seen as more ‘bluster’ than real policy change
CNBC
June 20, 2017
The U.S. downing of a Syrian government jet over the weekend marks an escalation in the long Syrian conflict, although Russia’s bold response Monday to view U.S. aircraft in the region as legitimate “targets” is seen more as “bluster” than anything else.
“Clearly, the Russians don’t like this and they’ve been able to get away with propping up a really barbaric regime in Syria for a very long time,” said Nile Gardiner, a foreign affairs analyst and director of the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think-tank based in Washington.
Gardiner contends that the only language the Russians understand is “strength and resolve” and adds that they “prey on weakness and indecision. So this latest military action sends the right message to Russian President Vladimir Putin that it’s no longer the status quo in Syria and things are going to change.”
At the same time, U.S. Sen. John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, tweeted Monday that the Russian threat was “outrageous” and the lawmaker added that the “U.S. must take necessary steps to protect our service members and partners.”
Posted in Analysis & Review, Middle East, Politics, Prison Planet Articles, Syria.
– June 20, 2017
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