Syria | The World Tomorrow

American President Barak Obama just can’t seem to deliver a TKO on the Russian President Vladimir Putin can he? In fact, for the last year it has seemed that Putin can go the distance in the ring with whatever Obama throws at him.

The unipolar world in which the United States of America is the sole superpower that can get its way in whatever it wants… is disappearing before our very eyes.

Nobody could really stand-up to the power of the U.S.A.’s displeasure in order to shelter NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden with all his revelations of American surveillance of everyone’s 27/7 digital communications… but Putin was willing to take Snowden in.

Obama said that the Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria crossed a Red Line because they used chemical weapons in that country’s Civil War… but Putin diplomatically out manoeuvred him and Assad’s regime survived and, today, has regained the battle field initiative on the ground.

The Obama administration stage managed a coup d’état in the Ukraine in February ousting the Russian-leaning president Viktor Yanukovych in order to firmly plant the Ukraine into the Western orbit of influence… but Putin broke off Crimea from the Ukraine and regained sovereignty over the strategically import home base of Russia’s warm water fleet. Presently, Putin has inspired several pro-Russian regions of Eastern Ukraine to declare independence from the Kiev government, making a massive headache for Obama and crew.

Obama and his allies try to use economic warfare tools like sanctions, travel bans, threats about boycotting Russian fossil fuel exports, and put pressure on global multi-national corporations to isolate and economically devastate Russia… but at the beginning of this week Putin signed a colossal $400 billion, 30-year, natural gas export deal with the world’s #2 economic power—Communist China. And China deliberately went ahead and did this ignoring the pleas from the U.S. Secretary of Treasure Jacob Lew to not undermine the U.S.A.’s efforts to put an economic headlock on Russia.

And what does all this mean? According to the BBC’s analysis: “Thus this deal between Russia’s Gazprom and the China National Petroleum Corporation could symbolize an important moment of transition – when both in economic and geopolitical terms, Russia’s gaze begins to look more towards the East rather than towards the West.”

But that’s not all! Consider this comment that appeared in the state-controlled Chinese press:

“If the Chinese-Russian energy trade switches to the [Russian] rouble and [Chinese] renminbi in settling transactions, the world economy will enter a new era. It could trigger a domino effect and encourage more countries to shun the US dollar in the international energy trade… The dominance of the US dollars would decline… challenging US control over global economic and political affairs.” – Cheng Yawen in Beijing’s Youth Daily.

The Russian president himself towards the end of this week’s St Petersburg Economic Forum, talked about the “end of the unipolar world,” meaning the end of the U.S. pre-dominance, its hegemony over the world’s affairs.

Obama hasn’t been able to deliver a knock-out punch on the wily Russian who sidesteps, bobs and weaves away from the American’s heavy handed jabs, biding his time until he can opportunistically press an attack on a desirable soft spot in order to achieve a notable success over his more powerful opponent in world affairs.

Oh yes, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations tried to pass a motion at the U.N. to open up proceedings by the International Criminal Court against the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad on war crimes. But… Russia and China have vetoed (this week after the signing of the natural gas deal in Shanghai) a UN Security Council resolution that would have referred the conflict in Syria to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Did you hear that great whooshing sound of the Obama administration wildly swinging, failing to connect with their adversary in world affairs?

Well, the U.S. president and his staff can at least take some consolation in the fact that this week they did get some judges to overturn voter-approved laws in those conservative, red-voting states of Idaho and Arkansas who had the audacity to ban gay marriage. Hah! That will show them the ruling Washington elite always gets its way… at least over those Americans who take the Bible seriously.

How ironic it is then, as the BBC notes “that at times Mr Putin seems to be setting Russia up as an alternative pole in terms of what he appears to regard as the decadent values of the West.”

Who are the good guys with the white hats and who are the bad guys with the black hats, anywise? Did somebody do a switcheroo?

News reports today, like every other day this week, are telling a gruesome tale of slaughter and brutality in the Syrian civil conflict. These reports are shocking, but not surprising, as the Syrian army uses its heavy weapons ostensibly purchased to fight with the Israeli army to now indiscriminately bombard and kill its own citizens living in the city of Homs and elsewhere in that country.

So the news features stories about the wholesale murder of men, women, and children who happen to be living in neighbourhoods where the popular sentiment is against the government. Any doctors or medical personnel who attempt to treat these wounded civilians in these areas under government bombardment are summarily executed as well. The government is determined to kill all who oppose it, armed or unarmed, as well as their entire families whether young or old. The Assad government is going to make an example of Homs.

Former friends and allies of the Syrian government of Bashar Assad, such as Turkey, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and other Persian Gulf states, are now seeking regime change. The Arab League tried to get the United Nations to pass some sort of resolution condemning the indiscriminate bloodshed. But the Russians and the Chinese, who have their own dirty laundry, vetoed the resolution because they don’t want to set a “bad” precedent that might somehow diminish the absolute right of a sovereign power to slaughter rebels as that government sees fit. Iran and Hezbollah are also backing up the Assad government, providing whatever assistance that government requests of them.

The rule of law? Human rights? Elemental civilized behaviour? Not a chance. Power comes out of the barrel of a smoking gun. What we are seeing in Syria is the mere continuance of a millennia-old Middle Eastern custom in which a ruler may use any and all means to assert his authority and punish his enemies.

For instance, the ancient Assyrians enjoyed decapitating the whole population of a rebellious city and then making a pyramid out of their victims’ heads at that city’s main entrance. This would serve as an ancient sort of twitter message to everyone else living in the region: submit or die you scum! The Assyrians liked this message so much they would even decorate their kings’ palaces with graphic portrayals of it.

Unfortunately carnal human nature has not changed much since antiquity. This is one reason the Bible is just as relevant today as it was thousands of years ago. Even though it was written so long ago, the book of Proverbs in the Hebrew Bible succinctly nails the nature of Bashar Assad this way:

A wicked ruler over a helpless people  is like a roaring lion or a charging bear (Proverbs 28:15 Holmen Christian Standard Bible)

Unfortunately, it would appear that at this time the Syrian people are going to receive little if any help from other nations to help stop the Assad government from murdering them by the thousands.

Nevertheless the Syrian regime should know that they will eventually lose power and then be held to account for their blood guilt. Perhaps this prophetic word of deliverance given by a Jewish prophet to his oppressed people thousands of years can lend a little comfort and hope to today’s hard-pressed people of Syria and elsewhere in the world. Let all the wicked rulers of the earth know that the God of Justice has not changed:

When God has given you time to recover from the abuse and trouble and harsh servitude that you had to endure, you can amuse yourselves by taking up this satire, a taunt against the king [of Syria]:
Can you believe it? The tyrant is gone! The tyranny is over!  God has broken the rule of the wicked, the power of the bully-rulers  that crushed many people.
A relentless rain of cruel outrage  established a violent rule of anger rife with torture and persecution.
And now it’s over, the whole earth quietly at rest.  Burst into song! Make the rafters ring!
 Ponderosa pine trees are happy, giant Lebanon cedars are relieved, saying, ”Since you’ve been cut down, there’s no one around to cut us down.” 
And the dead are all excited, preparing to welcome you when you come.  Getting ready to greet you are the ghostly dead, all the famous names of earth.  All the buried kings of the nations will stand up on their thrones  with well-prepared speeches, royal invitations to death:  “Now you are as nothing as we are! Make yourselves at home with us dead folks!” (Isaiah 14:3-10 The Message version).

The World Tomorrow

with Jeff Patton

Tag Archives: Syria

Obama getting the worst of it with Putin

Hey Assad! Prepare to make yourself at home with the dead