How Trump's Syria airstrike is different from -- and similar to -- Obama's
"Russia condemns U.S. missile strike on Syria, suspends key air agreement"
By Jeremy Herb
Updated 1556 GMT (2356 HKT) April 7, 2017 Trump: Assad choked out the helpless
VIDEO - Trump: Assad choked out the helpless 02:48
Story highlights
Obama launched airstrikes in Syria against ISIS He sought congressional approval to strike Assad's regime, but never got it On Thursday, Trump authorized a strike against an air base held by the Syrian government
(CNN)President Donald Trump and President Barack Obama have now both ordered airstrikes in Syria, but there are key ways that Thursday's strike was different from the previous military strikes there.
It's a step Obama was unwilling to take, at least without congressional approval, as Obama elected not to strike Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime in 2013 after a chemical attack crossed his .. http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/20/world/meast/syria-unrest/ .. "red line."
But Obama did launch airstrikes in Syria a year later .. http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/23/politics/obama-syria-strikes-policy/ , as the US began a military campaign against ISIS in Iraq and Syria. The nearly three-year war against ISIS has led to a steady stream of US bombings from manned aircraft, drones and missiles fired from warships.
The Trump administration continued Obama's bombing campaign against ISIS when Trump was inaugurated, as US-backed Syrian rebels prepare an offensive on Raqqa, the terror group's stronghold in Syria.
The situation on the ground in Syria is incredibly complex, between .. http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/10/middleeast/syria-race-for-raqqa-isis/ .. government forces, US-backed Syrian rebels, Kurdish fighters, ISIS militants and foreign fighters from Russia, Iran, Turkey and elsewhere.
While Russia is aligned with the US in the fight against ISIS -- and Trump has previously suggested the two countries should work together to defeat the militant group -- Russia has helped prop up the Assad regime militarily. There were Russians at the base the US struck, according to a US defense official.
Both the Obama administration and the Trump administration have relied on the war authorization that Congress passed after the September, 11, 2001 attacks to fight al-Qaeda across the globe.
Both administrations have argued that ISIS is an offshoot of al-Qaeda, but the Assad regime is unconnected to that, and lawmakers were quickly calling .. http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/06/politics/trump-congress-syria/index.html .. for a new war authorization for the latest strikes late Thursday evening.
"Assad is a brutal dictator who must be held accountable for his actions," Virginia Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine said in a statement. "But President Trump has launched a military strike against Syria without a vote of Congress. The Constitution says war must be declared by Congress."
The Trump administration, however, said Thursday that the airstrikes were not a change in Syria policy.
"I would not in any way attempt to extrapolate that to a change in our policy or posture relative to our military activities in Syria today," Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said. "There has been no change in that status."
As Tillerson has said Putin failed in his obligation to remove Assad chemical weapons from Syria .. and Putin's threat to cut hotline communications re flights over Syria seems simply to have been Putin for domestic consumption chat, as the line has been 'reestablished'.
Ooi, as thought the 5am BBC News Hour on ABC24 in Sydney must be delayed since i just heard Putin had cut that hotline off without a mention of it being back on .. so, heh, despite being ahead in time it seems, unless one stays up all night with cable tv, we are behind in getting so much of the news.
For the Kremlin’s state media, however, the battle drill was clear. Nonstop coverage of the “terrorist attack” was launched immediately, replete with photos of victims and an alleged attacker — later revealed not to be the perpetrator but a witness — as well as of a second device that was allegedly found and defused .. http://tvzvezda.ru/news/vstrane_i_mire/content/201704031752-9soe.htm . Putin, too, despite his earlier caution, issued a statement on the condolence call from U.S. President Donald Trump, saying the two leaders agreed that “terrorism is an evil that must be fought jointly .. http://time.com/4724200/trump-calls-putin-st-petersburg-bombing/ .” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov added an appeal for more international cooperation .. https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-st-petersburg-subway-bombing-kyrgyzstan-suspect-putin/28409490.html .. to combat terror. With Secretary of State Rex Tillerson expected to visit Moscow in the next few weeks, and with the Russian government still trying to distract from recent anti-corruption protests across the country, it is certainly no surprise to see the state media machine (and the government officials that fuel it) pivoting to the importance of the United States and Russia cooperating to fight terrorism — and the need for heightened security at a time of potential unrest. The Duma has already proposed banning .. http://m.rosbalt.ru/russia/2017/04/04/1604762.html .. political demonstrations “for awhile” because of the attack.
Russia’s narrative opportunism will undoubtedly spark fresh rumors, among Russians and foreigners alike, that the attacks may have been staged. The rumors have been hard for the Kremlin to dodge since respected investigative journalists compiled substantial evidence .. http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2012/11/22/finally-we-know-about-moscow-bombings/ .. that the 1999 Moscow apartment bombings were conducted by the Federal Security Service (FSB) in order to create a pretext for the second Chechen war that landed Putin in the presidency.
But the speculation about “false flag” operations distracts from the reality of the Kremlin’s current positions on terrorist organizations and terror attacks. And this reality is chilling enough without any embellishment.
-- Since the 9/11 attacks, the Kremlin has endeavored to use the mutual desire to fight terrorism as a foundation for restored relations with Washington. --
It has also been documented that, in addition to other forms of aid given to the Islamic State by Russia and Assad .. http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/02/trumps-plan-to-fight-isis-with-putin-isnt-just-futile-its-dangerous-214743 — which include Assad’s purchases of oil from the Islamic State, allegations of intelligence sharing with Islamic State forces, and the fortuitous resupply of arms and ammunition from Russian stocks — the FSB has helped recruit fighters for the Islamic State .. https://www.novayagazeta.ru/articles/2015/07/29/65056-171-halifat-primanka-dlya-durakov-187 .. and facilitated the movement of jihadis to Syria. Although some have said this was a “local initiative” to clean up the North Caucasus before the Sochi Olympics, there is reporting that this recruitment was happening via Russian assets across Europe as well.
This early support yielded clear results for the Kremlin. It is hard to ignore that the first group of Russian-speaking jihadis showed up in Syria at exactly the right time to help turn the war away from Assad and toward Iraq .. http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/09/putin-syria-ukraine-213173 .
[ insert from that link: there were rumors, now confirmed by Russian investigative journalists, that Russia was actively exporting fighters from the North Caucasus to Syria]
They did so with the intelligence to act quickly and in alignment with Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and other Sunni Islamic State leaders, many of whom were KGB-trained (an artifact from the Kremlin’s long-term partnership .. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carlo-caro/moscows-historical-relati_b_9065430.html .. with the Baath Party in Syria and Iraq). The arrival of the Islamic State was a key part of Russia’s narrative that there were no moderate rebels to support against Assad.
There is evidence that Russia has been working with the Taliban .. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/01/03/russia-s-new-favorite-jihadis-the-taliban.html .. in Afghanistan, as well. The Russians believe that empowering the Taliban, in particular with legitimacy and intelligence sharing, will take space away from the expansion of the Islamic State. However, this has also meant working against American interests as U.S. troops continue to fight the Taliban, al Qaeda, and the Islamic State alike.
The message from the Kremlin has become increasingly clear: If you want to be a terrorist, you have to be our terrorist (and you have to be outside of Russian territory).
-- This is why, even in the wake of tragedy, calls for greater cooperation on terrorism from the Kremlin sound hollow. --
This is why, even in the wake of tragedy, calls for greater cooperation on terrorism from the Kremlin sound hollow. There is no simple answer to how America can fight terrorism alongside a nation that views terrorist groups as just another tool in hybrid or conventional warfare alike. While the Kremlin has changed its nuclear doctrine .. https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2017-02/escalate-de-escalate .. to view nuclear weapons as “just another conventional weapon,” its consistent capture of terrorist elements exposes its willingness to use any means necessary in the war against the West .. http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/01/putins-real-long-game-214589 .
This array of tools has been cultivated because it gives Putin’s Russia greater control in determining and negotiating the outcomes they want. Put differently, the Kremlin is comfortable using its “bad actor” status to get better deals for its far-weaker nation. As consistently noted in the recent Senate hearings on Russia .. https://www.c-span.org/video/?426227-1/senate-intelligence-panel-warned-russians-play-sides , the Russians are not “ten feet tall.” But until we are willing to see the full range of tools and tactics they are willing to use against us — and how they use them, in ways often unthinkable to us, to force the hand of their opponents — we aren’t entering negotiations on fair footing or with clear eyes.
As concerns about a renewed terrorist threat echo through Russian media, we should be cautious — but not cynical — in watching how a new narrative on terrorism is used by the Kremlin.
The Trump administration should resist the impulse to make terrorism the top priority or a key area of bilateral outreach to Russia. One-on-one, the Kremlin knows how to use its unconventional tools to keep opponents off-guard and dominate negotiations. There tend to be surprises once you get to the table — often in the form of crises that only Russia and its unconventional tactics can solve. But it is far harder to get away with this in a multilateral format or with a well-informed opponent. Within the framework of a strong NATO alliance, for example, Russian aggression can be contained and balanced, and the Kremlin is always in a position of comparative weakness when their tricks and storytelling are seen for what they are.
Monday’s attack was a tragedy for the victims. But there is no excuse to allow Putin to evade serious questions about Russia’s partnerships with terrorist organizations abroad — partnerships that expose its backing of anti-Western, anti-American, and anti-NATO sentiment in armed abundance. As with many things, the Kremlin’s narrative about fighting terror looks flawless on Russian television. But Americans must understand the reality behind this fiction, or risk getting blamed for the Kremlin’s crimes.
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