© Russian Government 2014
Russian President Vladimir Putin • Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
As Recip Tayyip Erdogan prosecutes
his latest military intrusion southward into Syria, all the old mythologies about the Turkish president and the 9-year-old Syrian conflict are rehearsed once again, hopelessly threadbare as they are.
The problem now is not the fog of war. The problem is the war of fog.
Let us be clear from the start, then, as to what has unfolded since last week and what will be the desired outcome.
The Syrian Arab Army, a force for good,
must not stop short of decisive victory in Idlib, the governorate in northwest Syria sheltering the last jihadist militias operating on Syrian soil.
Russia, which is correctly (and legally) supporting the S.A.A.'s campaign,
should try to avoid a direct conflict with a NATO member but should engage Turkish forces if there is no alternative.
NATO, breaking its own Article 5 covenant,
will not come to the aid of a member nation engaged in so despicable an assault on another sovereign nation. I am not alone in holding
this opinion. Don't forget: Most NATO members are squeamish, mealy-mouthed Europeans who have given up the ghost in Syria.
Comment: Is Georgia so desperate to join the failing EU and the ailing NATO as well as to appease the US that it will go along with baseless accusations against Russia in the hopes that they may get the chance to join their clubs? Attacks on Georgia benefit a number of countries but Russia isn't one of them.