But why would he do that? Why wouldn't he continue to fight until every inch of Syria's sovereign territory is recovered?
Because it's not in Russia's national interest to do so, that's why. Putin has never tried to conceal the fact that he's in Syria to protect Russia's national security. That's his main objective. But he's not an idealist, he's a pragmatist who'll do whatever he has to to end the war ASAP. That means compromise.
This doesn't matter to the Washington warlords...yet. But it will eventually. Eventually there will be an accommodation of some sort. No one is going to get everything they want, that much is certain. For example, it's impossible to imagine that Putin would launch a war on Turkey to recover the territory that Turkish troops now occupy in N Syria. In fact, Putin may have already conceded as much to Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan in their recent meetings. But that doesn't mean that Putin doesn't have his red lines. He does. Aleppo is a red line. Turkish troops will not be allowed to enter Aleppo.
The western corridor, the industrial and population centers are all red lines. On these, there will be no compromise. Putin will help Assad remain in power and keep the country largely intact. But will Turkey control sections in the north, and will the US control sections in the east?
Probably. This will have to be worked out in negotiations, but its unlikely that the country's borders will be the same as they were before the war broke out. Putin will undoubtedly settle for a half-loaf provided the fighting ends and security is restored. In any event, he's not going to hang around until the last dog is hung.
Unfortunately, we're a long way from any settlement in Syria, mainly because Washington is nowhere near accepting the fact that its project to rule the world has been derailed. That's the crux of the matter, isn't it? The big-shots who run the country are still in denial. It hasn't sunk in yet that the war is lost and that their nutty jihadist-militia plan has failed.
It's going to take a long time before Washington gets the message that the world is no longer its oyster. The sooner they figure it out, the better it'll be for everyone.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
15
13
12
