Russia in Syria by Matthew Homsher 9th Period

Summary: The United States is worried about a potential conflict with its former Cold War enemy, Russia, in Syria. Russia is calling for United States military cooperation in Syria to dislodge ISIS, but they want to do it by supplying weapons to Bashar Assad. The U.S. also wants to dislodge the Islamist fighters, but we don’t want to help Assad. In fact, it would be best if he were no longer in power. There are now 200 Russian naval infantry stationed at an airport near Lakokia in Syria. The U.S. President plans to continue airstrikes in the region. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov blames Washington for cutting off military-to-military communication between the NATO countries and Russia after last year’s crisis in Ukraine. He also says that such communications are “important for the avoidance of undesired, unintended accidents.”

Analysis: It really seems that we are headed into another unavoidable conflict with Russia unless we agree to help Bashar Al Assad. I’m not sure what the right answer is here. Russia supports a Syrian President who wants to allow himself a fourteen year term and is willing to kill his citizens to get it. We really should try to be as diplomatic as possible but if Russia continues to help Assad, then “undesired, unintended accidents” won’t be the worst of it. It will be another Cold War. The last thing the U.S. needs to do is try to appease Russia. If they want war over Assad, then we’ll have to give it to them.

For more information click on the link below

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/russia-u-s-talk-us-syria-or-risk-unintended-incidents-n426296