What Putin Has to Say to Americans About SyriaRecent events surrounding Syria have prompted me to speak directly to the American people and their political leaders. It is important to do so at a time of insufficient communication between our societies.
Relations between us have passed through different stages. We stood against each other during the cold war. But we were also allies once, and defeated the Nazis together. The universal international organization - the United Nations - was then established to prevent such devastation from ever happening again.
The United Nations' founders understood that decisions affecting war and peace should happen only by consensus, and with America's consent the veto by Security Council permanent members was enshrined in the United Nations Charter. The profound wisdom of this has underpinned the stability of international relations for decades.
No one wants the United Nations to suffer the fate of the League of Nations, which collapsed because it lacked real leverage. This is possible if influential countries bypass the United Nations and take military action without Security Council authorization.
The potential strike by the United States against Syria, despite strong opposition from many countries and major political and religious leaders, including the pope, will result in more innocent victims and escalation, potentially spreading the conflict far beyond Syria's borders. A strike would increase violence and unleash a new wave of terrorism. It could undermine multilateral efforts to resolve the Iranian nuclear problem and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and further destabilize the Middle East and North Africa. It could throw the entire system of international law and order out of balance.
Syria is not witnessing a battle for democracy, but an armed conflict between government and opposition in a multireligious country. There are few champions of democracy in Syria. But there are more than enough Qaeda fighters and extremists of all stripes battling the government. The United States State Department has designated Al Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, fighting with the opposition, as terrorist organizations. This internal conflict, fueled by foreign weapons supplied to the opposition, is one of the bloodiest in the world.
Mercenaries from Arab countries fighting there, and hundreds of militants from Western countries and even Russia, are an issue of our deep concern. Might they not return to our countries with experience acquired in Syria? After all, after fighting in Libya, extremists moved on to Mali. This threatens us all.
From the outset, Russia has advocated peaceful dialogue enabling Syrians to develop a compromise plan for their own future. We are not protecting the Syrian government, but international law. We need to use the United Nations Security Council and believe that preserving law and order in today's complex and turbulent world is one of the few ways to keep international relations from sliding into chaos. The law is still the law, and we must follow it whether we like it or not. Under current international law, force is permitted only in self-defense or by the decision of the Security Council. Anything else is unacceptable under the United Nations Charter and would constitute an act of aggression.
No one doubts that poison gas was used in Syria. But there is every reason to believe it was used not by the Syrian Army, but by opposition forces, to provoke intervention by their powerful foreign patrons, who would be siding with the fundamentalists. Reports that militants are preparing another attack - this time against Israel - cannot be ignored.
It is alarming that military intervention in internal conflicts in foreign countries has become commonplace for the United States. Is it in America's long-term interest? I doubt it. Millions around the world increasingly see America not as a model of democracy but as relying solely on brute force, cobbling coalitions together under the slogan "you're either with us or against us."
But force has proved ineffective and pointless. Afghanistan is reeling, and no one can say what will happen after international forces withdraw. Libya is divided into tribes and clans. In Iraq the civil war continues, with dozens killed each day. In the United States, many draw an analogy between Iraq and Syria, and ask why their government would want to repeat recent mistakes.
No matter how targeted the strikes or how sophisticated the weapons, civilian casualties are inevitable, including the elderly and children, whom the strikes are meant to protect.
The world reacts by asking: if you cannot count on international law, then you must find other ways to ensure your security. Thus a growing number of countries seek to acquire weapons of mass destruction. This is logical: if you have the bomb, no one will touch you. We are left with talk of the need to strengthen nonproliferation, when in reality this is being eroded.
We must stop using the language of force and return to the path of civilized diplomatic and political settlement.
A new opportunity to avoid military action has emerged in the past few days. The United States, Russia and all members of the international community must take advantage of the Syrian government's willingness to place its chemical arsenal under international control for subsequent destruction. Judging by the statements of President Obama, the United States sees this as an alternative to military action.
I welcome the president's interest in continuing the dialogue with Russia on Syria. We must work together to keep this hope alive, as we agreed to at the Group of 8 meeting in Lough Erne in Northern Ireland in June, and steer the discussion back toward negotiations.
If we can avoid force against Syria, this will improve the atmosphere in international affairs and strengthen mutual trust. It will be our shared success and open the door to cooperation on other critical issues.
My working and personal relationship with President Obama is marked by growing trust. I appreciate this. I carefully studied his address to the nation on Tuesday. And I would rather disagree with a case he made on American exceptionalism, stating that the United States' policy is "what makes America different. It's what makes us exceptional."
It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation. There are big countries and small countries, rich and poor, those with long democratic traditions and those still finding their way to democracy. Their policies differ, too. We are all different, but when we ask for the Lord's blessings, we must not forget that God created us equal.
Reader Comments
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First of all Sott is not an advertising agency. Secondly, the whole thing is a scam, I checked.
Sott needs to be completely undressed (subject to harsh crtical review), on occasion.
There is advertising here, and there is financial backing.
There is organization and a form of self-promotion.
Organization along with this form of self-promotion and (furtive?) financial backing tends unfortunately toward corruption. This is the law of mammon. There is a line that is not a line and yet is and gets 'crossed'.
Every reader (peson) here has a responsibilty.
To fight corruption and prevent the growth of mammon.
Make the world better, not worse.
ned
There is NO PAID ADVERTISING. We advertise our own products for fund-raising and occasional courtesy ads for those doing things we support.
Yes, there is organization - an approved US 501 (c)(3) - Quantum Future Group, Inc - that is entitled to promote its projects in line with its corporate objectives.
There is no "furtive financial backing". There is simply reader support, period. As a 501(c)(3), QFG's tax returns are available to the public every year. You will find there everything you wish to know about our sources of income and project expenditures which happen to be way better than any other 501(c)(3) I know of.
For the founders of SOTT, death threats began back in 2002 when SOTT was in its infancy, we've spent years under defamation the likes of which no other alt website has ever experienced, plus a year long police investigation and then a year long Fiscal audit. On top of that, we've been sued for exposing a predator (he called it defamation) and we regularly get "intent to sue" letters or take-down notices. Then, there are the DOS attacks, the attempts to hack our servers, which is something we consider to be daily affairs.
We've learned how to deal with all of these things flying by the seat of our pants and with support from our readers. We've got multiple servers with daily back-ups located in three different countries. We have three programming/internet specialists located in different countries with access to the servers who can tweak server settings as needed when attacks come or switch servers. Still, with all that, we do go down once in awhile, but not that often. Again, thanks to reader support. Instead of putting money in our pockets, we put it into keeping the services up and running.
We've got four attorneys in two countries who happen to like our work and cut us a steep discount. I would say that about one tenth of our annual income goes to legal fees. We make sure that we are so legally clean that we squeak, otherwise, we would not have survived the previous 2.5 years of legal attacks. Every filthy lie that was ever told about us in the endless defamation was investigated and the fact that the case was closed with no evidence of wrongdoing on our part at all was a victory. Same with the fiscal audit. Every t is crossed and every i is dotted.
Anybody who gets in the alt news/dissident/anti-establishmentarian business has to realize immediately that IF YOU ARE A REAL THREAT, they WILL eventually come after you. We knew it, we stay prepared for it.
First they'll try to shut you down by attacking you psychologically with defamation and filth of some kind.
Then you'll get death threats and some of those can be pretty scary and personal especially if you have children. There have been attempts to run my kids off the road in their cars, attempts to sabotage my car, invasions of our property with "messages left" such as dead pets and certain other attacks that cannot be discussed in public because litigation is in process.
If that doesn't work (and that can go on for awhile) they'll try to find third parties to break you financially in some way: lawsuits, complaints about you that get your online accounts frozen.
If you figure out how to maneuver through that, then they'll try to get you on some legal issue: you've broken some law or other. They might plant drugs on you or get some person to claim you did something illegal (like give advice) and then you get embroiled in a time-wasting series of interrogations, everybody you know gets called in and interrogated, your local reputation is destroyed, etc etc.
If that doesn't work, then they send the tax auditors after you. If you aren't prepared for an audit, this can destroy you. We were prepared. We stay prepared.
The amount of documentation that has to be done for protection is staggering but it has to be dealt with. You can only do this with a team. Nobody can do it alone.
We've been through all of the above and some extras. We have had to fight for our square inch of space to stand on since 9-11 and thankfully, we have faithful and generous readers who appreciate what we do and show it in material ways. We've even made donations to some of the other sites we like such as ICH. He has to ask for money every month, we only have to ask about once a year so we must be doing something right.
If you don't agree with SOTT, you are welcome to go elsewhere. We stand by what we do, we live by the principles we promote, and if anybody needs to be completely undressed, I'd say it is anonymous attackers, not the owners and editors of SOTT who, as I already said, are completely transparent and non-commercial.
As for self-promotion, of course we promote ourselves. We'd be idiots not to. Having said that, if Sott.net is increasingly popular, it is because of the interest of our readers who do the most promoting of Sott.net by far via social networking.
Nedlud,
Yes, every source should be subject to critical review.
However, you play games and aim subtle jabs at sott without addressing the actual article, which in fact is not written by SOTT but put on the site for us to read and make up our own minds.
What's funny is that every time someone calls you out on your comments, you ignore the responses if there is no gain for you to respond.
My gut instinct says you are a shill.
Assad has agreed to surrender all of his chemical arsenal under certain conditions of course. Looks like the Obama administration have a tough one this time. I could be wrong of course but I don't think they are gonna bomb Syria. Too high profile and tough to find a good reason.
But yes The Dictator. Now it is important to say that Assad is a dictator even if he wanted to give up his arsenal. And also it is important to criticize Putin, how bad he is! And be very, very sorry for Obama. And America. And the Americans. How dare Putin criticize America!
As the Fonz would say.
We (the people) need the United Nations and Mr. Evil (ras)Putin here about as much as we need the Vatican in Rome and the latest Pope-a-dope-a-hope-a-hope.
Or any other den of thieves and mannequin (stiff) ruler, made to order us around and cheat and swindle.
Get the fuck outta my house of prayer (honesty and truth, humility and reason).
Get the fuck away from me (my own sense of identity, worth and purpose, natural law).
And stay the fuck away!
signed,
JC
Who are these people? Are you referring to the sheeple? The herd?
If so, they need all the help they can get before being sent off to the slaughterhouse. It's all basic empire-building, same story every time. Nothing changes, because the classroom is designed for a certain set of lessons, which are taught to every generation in every kingdom, republic or empire, separately and together. "We, the people" will continue to get 'the shaft' until we learn to wake up and smell the stench that engulfs our consciousness. It's a stench of our own creation. We made the mess and we have to clean it up. Seen the film, "Matrix"? Recognize this line of questioning? The 'machines' are getting tired of 'we, the people'.
Putin is merely stating the obvious but finds virtually no one here in the States capable of hearing the simple truth, too many heads buried in the sand since birth. He should know of what he speaks having grown up in a similar system in the ole USSR. The question most young students of our recent history have is how could civilized people do this? Well, now we know. It's a step by step process like learning to walk, only this is more like sleep walking, and the state is careful not to wake us up and spoil the illusion of how 'special' we are. Every empire thinks the same of itself. Imagine all those soldiers in WW2 who gave their lives to prevent fascism from taking over the world, only to wake up today and realize it was all for naught. What a wake-up call, hunh? The same lesson repeats around the world and it gets more brazen with every turn of the screw as your screams are heard by no one but you. Remember no one else is listening, just ask Putin.
You can ridicule the foolish Russian leader as he attempts to avoid the traps of quicksand we have deposited around the world, you can mock the priestly pedophiles in the Church (or should we just call them child rapists?), not many in any government going after them is there??? How about making fun of the mainstream media that drones on and on everyday and night with an endless chatter that keeps us asleep at the wheel while the machines keep picking up speed....If you know your history, you know how this story ends... in the usual abyss of the mindlessly forgotten, as Mother Nature turns the clock and resets the game once more.... Listen to the ennui found within Lana's plaintive call to the unknown as her voice calls out for attention: 'Summertime Sadness' anyone?
I'm feelin' electric tonight
Cruising down the coast goin' 'bout 99
Got my bad baby by my heavenly side
I know if I go, I'll die happy tonight
Oh, my God, I feel it in the air
Telephone wires above are sizzling like a snare
Honey, I'm on fire, I feel it everywhere
Nothing scares me anymore
========
Funny, but the more you push it away, the closer it gets.... that's the same problem if looking in your car's side view mirrors... objects are closer than they may appear. Careful driving Ned, and check to see if that 'bad baby' by your side is someone you really know and trust because there seems to be way too many no longer scared of death and driving like a bat out of hell... it's all that excites them these days, another sign of the times, no?
I was under the impression that Obama was our Savior. The global stage theater is NEVER what it seems, and this well orchestrated collapse of the US of A will not be the blessing that many of us are hoping far. In fact, it will lead to an even greater totalitarian state. Does anyone really believe that The Thugs are just going to roll over?
Makes me think of a line from a Don Henley song- Inside Job
"You think that you're so smart, but you don't have a fucking clue what those men up in the Towers are doing to me and you. And they'll keep doing it, and doing it, and doing it, until we all wake up, wake up, wake up!"
"A strike would increase violence and unleash a new wave of terrorism"
That's why I'm making my second donation next month at Sott. Here is where I feel at home, comfortable, here are my internet buddies. In the beginning I admit my behavior wasn't proper, it took me some time to adjust. Originally I had purchased some reading material for which Laura thanked me kindly. I know how it is being harassed , since I got through similar situations myself when I started my first blog back in 1997. For me Sott is the beacon in the darkness that surrounds us.
mesage is here less important and irrelevant. 70 years ago Russians lost (if i remember good from school books?) 11+ million people from nation who thought they are exceptional. Putin left you gently a message and in same time a warning. Russians use to say : one who keep looking at own history is blind on one eye, but one who dont care for own history is blind on both eye. reading Russians newspaper and web clearly show they know USA better than ordinary American. They know who is paying and creating terrorists, that endless wars are not for democracy. world is not stupid, they just dont want see USA crumbling and desapearing. nobody want USA to see destroyed, not because the USA is exceptiona, it is just because it is part of humanity on this planet. but US PTB psychos mixed something in heads... they think if Russians are patient and tolerant they are weak. if Chinese dont speak they are weak. just one thing i forgot about dictators. some nations must have dictators to function properly. to be dictator is tough job. it does not mean it has to eat small children or other Hollywood nonsense.
Sadam and Ghadafi were dictators. look at Lybia and Iraq now. to be dictator does not have to be negative. i can find few potentional good dictators on this forum including my self.
60 million PLUS exterminated in Stalin's Russia. Putin himself said the Bolshevik revolution was largely jewish in nature.
But at least there's ONE statesman in the world. Putin, at this point in time stands head and shoulders above most western 'leaders'. Assad just said that Israel should be the first to disarm. I guess that makes TWO statesmen.
and amateur hour on the world stage. Putin and especially his Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov are obvious brilliant, professional and competent, the masters in this war dance. With Saudi Arabia offering to foot the bill for the US to give al Qaeda (rebels) in Syria a potent and deadly air force to change regimes....even the dumbest sheep in the flock knows this is nothing about Assad killing 1400 of his own people with chemical weapons, no this had been planned for 2 years as the US & CIA began giving non-lethal aid to the rebels (al qaeda) two years ago...millions of US taxpayer money to begin the process of changing out Assad.....the thing is this whole scenario stinks through and through, I don't trust Putin, I think this is a big game of good cop(Putin), bad cop (Obama). Clearly Obama and his masters have but one agenda - topple Assad and killing tens of thousands of innocent people in the process is nothing to them. Let us remember Bush Senior with his propaganada speech about about the bad guys throwing babies out of incubators to die - later we found out that was a total LIE, and the young Bush with his WMD - a total lie that cost Americans our country as we still languish in a depression (they hide with phony ststs) and our country is bankrupt thanks to that 10 plus year war that cost us 100s of billions of dollars and decimated a country.
Putin as the master, the pro..........Obama has as the amateur and Kerry as the empty suit....they all dance us closer and closer to the WWlll their masters designed years ago. A united country wanting peace and united world wanting peace can stop them...maybe.