Bolton: The Administration is Legitimizing Russia’s Military Presence in Mideast
(CNSNews.com) – The Obama administration’s response to the Russians’ launching of airstrikes in Syria amounts to “legitimizing their military presence in a region where for 50 years we’ve tried to keep them out,” former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton said on Saturday.
Addressing a Young America’s Foundation conference in Columbus, Ohio, Bolton characterized the administration’s approach to the Russian intervention as one of a series of shows of weakness across the globe, from its response to the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi to the Iran nuclear deal – an agreement over which he suggested Secretary of State John Kerry should resign.
“The best thing we can hope for is the world goes to sleep for 16 months, because it’s not going to get any better,” he said. “The ground has already shifted under our feet dramatically. It will shift further until the next president is sworn in.”
From the outset, the response to Russia’s military buildup in Syria had been troubling.
“Ten days ago, asked about this military buildup, Secretary of State John Kerry said, ‘Well, our experts believe that it’s just there for force protection.’ Now, this was an inane comment the moment he made it. What did he mean? That they inserted the force so it could protect itself?”
“What was it protecting? It was protecting the capacity to do what Russia is now doing, which is bombing targets in Syria of forces that are hostile to the Assad regime, that Russia is supporting,” Bolton said.
“I think the Russians are doing nothing less than challenging the United States for dominance in the Middle East – something we’ve had for over half a century.”
Bolton noted that Russia had alerted the U.S. to its imminent launch of airstrikes last week by dispatching a military general to the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad with the message, “We’re going to begin air operations in Syria; you should get out of the air.”
The administration responded by entering “deconfliction” talks, he said. (These are discussions aimed at reducing the likelihood of accidental collision or other mishap in airspace that is now being used by Russian warplanes as well as those of the U.S.-led anti-ISIS coalition.)
“Now that sounds reasonable,” Bolton continued, “but this is a demonstration how the Obama administration, again and again at the tactical level, is sacrificing American strategic interest.”
He recalled that as the U.S. was about to launch an attack in 1991 against Saddam Hussein’s Iraq after he occupied Kuwait, Israel had asked the U.S. for deconfliction codes, to enable it to deploy its aircraft as well.
The Israelis had said they want to be in a position to defend their country against Iraqi aggression, but the U.S. had replied, “‘We are defending your country. Keep your planes on the ground – and if you come up and there’s an incident, you will be responsible,’” Bolton said.
“That’s what we said to one of our closest allies in the world, because the military judgment that we wanted to do this on our own,” he said. (It was a political decision as well as a military one: The U.S. was concerned [1] that an Israeli attack on Iraq would fracture the fragile anti-Saddam coalition it had built, which included Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s father, Hafez.)
In contrast to the situation during the Persian Gulf War, Bolton said, “What did we do in this administration, when Russian wants to deconflict with us? We say, ‘Oh sure, that’s great. Let’s talk about it.’”
“We are legitimizing their military presence in a region where for 50 years we’ve tried to keep them out,” he said.
Bolton called the Kremlin’s intervention in Syria the greatest Russian military advance in the region since Egyptian President Anwar Sadat expelled thousands of Soviet military advisors in 1972.
“And the administration is fully complicit with it.”
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