Regarding War in Syria, Don’t Irritate The Bear
When a bear is in a forest -or in the desert as in the case we are going to address- one needs to be cautious and have their guns ready. But frequently the human being may made some of the mistakes that are mentioned below.
In the first case, what is done is running away and letting the bear taking whatever he wants -the animal in question has no respect towards mental or physical weakness. So it will attempt to take a higher amount of the desired thing for sure, provided there’s nobody without fear to prevent him to continue. Anyway it is one of different stories with morals, like fables.
Meanwhile, on the other hand, one may corner the bear without being wary of the risks of challenging animals like that. The bear could react against him -in order to defend from what he considers as an attack and threat- by biting and then causing him profound injuries and enough blooding to need urgent medical attention.
Leaving aside animal world discussions, I am not going to put into doubt how authoritarian and illiberal is the Russian regime -ruled by Vladimir Putin, a former KGB agent-. It is far from representing Western values standards despite the misconception of not few defenders of European Christian heritage.
Vladimir Putin also “dreams” about recreating fallen Soviet empire, whose fall is considered by him as a great geopolitical tragedy. I am sure that this opinion is not shared by the victims of criminal, inhuman, illiberal and totalitarian socialist rule in Soviet Union and its satellites and puppets.
Anyway, though Russian aggressive expansionism must be stopped, but engaging in a risky conflict with Russians over Syria is not a good solution whatsoever -my standpoint is similar regarding Ukraine. What we could achieve is just an unsafety feeling among Russians to which its State may react unreasonably, making worse the conflict between NATO and Russia.
My point of view is based on an answer to what ought to be the foremost question in any debate on that geopolitical issue: “Will US military intervention bring peace to Syria?” Libyan experience tells us the opposite situation. Overthrowing Assad would bring an opportunity to Islamists linked to the Islamic State that may organize even more terrorist attacks in Western Europe and North America.
But, what should be done instead? Paraphrasing former conservative president of the US Ronald Reagan, a hint might be based on the formula of peace through strength. Russian State must remain under sanctions against its aggressions. Russians shouldn’t pay the price of its authoritarian regime geopolitical strategies and movements.
Meanwhile, what the West should do in Syria is providing support to local forces whose purposes are more than reasonable, like Kurds. They represent one of the most secular nations in the area, apart from helping Christians from that region -the Middle East is one of the different world regions where these people suffer a fierce and terrible persecution.
Unfortunately, in Middle East, by and large, conflicts in specific zones are struggles against “bad guys against bad guys” whose outcomes are always very negative. So one may understand that anti-Assad opposition forces are not necessarily a better alternative than the current dictatorship. Most of them represent Islamist orientation. Implementation of their vile ideas of oppressing women and minorities may change region in even worse place it already is.
Additionally, it should be noted that the implementation democracy and western values in non-Western countries is a very complicated affair. In most cases, those countries have a set of institutions that are totally different to those from the West. They have a sociological and political mindset based skepticism towards Western principles such as individualism.
However, it cannot be denied the success of some countries “trying to become Western”, such as for example Hong Kong and Japan. None of their societies have given up their traditions, but there is not a substantial Muslim population either. Islam and freedom are incompatible, but I would rather address that issue in other essay.
Finally, as a conclusion, what should be part of the geopolitical West agenda is a set of strategies based on the protection of religious, ethnical and political minorities apart from fighting Islamism -what is a real threat for our continent.
Nacido en 1995, en Gdańsk (Pomerania, Polonia). Actualmente, residente de Pruszcz Gdański. Graduado en Matemáticas y estudiante del Master en Matemáticas (Especialidad en Finanzas) en la Universidad Politécnica de Gdansk. Miembro de la asociación KoLiber. Defensor del capitalismo de libre mercado, la libertad individual y la civilización occidental. Patriota y euroescéptico. Mis campos de interés son la economía, la historia, el ajedrez y el pensamiento político liberal-conservador.
Deja una respuesta