As far as the White House is concerned, President Obama has Russian President Vladimir Putin right where he wants him, mired in the Middle Eastern quagmire he’s worked to keep the United States out of.
But the administration’s nonchalant response to news that Russian aircraft launched their first strikes in Syria on Wednesday has unnerved critics of Obama’s policy, who note that the president is letting Putin seize control of the global fight against the Islamic State for his own ends.
Michael Doran, a former National Security Council official now at the Hudson Institute, jokingly described the administration’s response to Russia’s recent moves in Syria as “we’re going to choke them to death by feeding them the Middle East,” before predicting it would fail.
But administration officials insist they’re confident that Putin is making a mistake by reinforcing Russia’s long-time support for the regime of embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest on Wednesday went so far as to suggest that if Russia tried to impose a military solution in Syria it would fail just as the United States failed in Iraq, noting that Moscow’s intervention comes as Syria is in “utter chaos” and Assad is on the ropes.
“I think that’s a pretty clear indication that Russia’s not flexing its muscles inside of Syria. Right now they’re trying to prop up a pretty poor investment that’s about to go south,” he said.
At a U.N. meeting called by Russia to discuss bolstering global cooperation in the fight against terrorism, Secretary of State John Kerry said Washington would welcome a “genuine commitment” by Moscow to work with the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State.
“But we must not and will not be confused in our fight against [the Islamic State] with support for Assad. Moreover, we have also made clear that we would have grave concerns should Russia strike areas where [the Islamic State] and al Qaeda-affiliated targets are not operating,” Kerry said.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Russian support of Assad was “tantamount … to pouring gasoline on the fire” and urged Moscow to cooperate more closely with the United States against the Islamic State, beginning with the finalization of formal talks to avoid conflicts between the two countries’ forces as they operate in Syria.
The officials’ comments followed on the optimistic tone that came out of Obama’s meeting Monday with Putin, the first in two years, where he called on the Russian leader to cooperate in fighting the Islamic State and seeking a peaceful solution in Syria.
“This was not a situation where either one of them was seeking to score points in a meeting. I think there was a shared desire to figure out a way in which we can address the situation in Syria,” a senior administration official told reporters.
Although it appears that following the U.S. lead isn’t what Moscow has planned, the White House’s tone hasn’t changed, and that has critics concerned. Though U.S. officials deny it, CNN quoted senior defense officials as saying the Pentagon was “taken aback” by the Russian airstrikes, coming as they did before the deconfliction process could be finalized.
“Our presidents just talked about setting up deconfliction talks and now they just go ahead and do this? They cannot be trusted,” one official was quoted as saying.
In a Senate floor speech Wednesday, Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. John McCain blasted the administration, noting that U.S. officials and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Russian strikes had targeted areas near the city of Homs, where there are no Islamic State forces.
“Already we are seeing the true intentions of Vladimir Putin, which is to maintain a strong position in Syria, his foothold in the Middle East and his propping up of Bashar Assad,” the Arizona Republican said, noting that “this is the inevitable consequence of hollow words, red lines crossed, tarnished moral influence, ‘leading from behind,’ and a total lack of American leadership.
“Into the wreckage of this administration’s Middle East policy has now stepped Vladimir Putin.”
In sharp contrast to the White House’s optimistic tone, Russia on Wednesday accused the United States of an information war against its operations in Syria.
“Do not listen to the Pentagon about Russian strikes, ask the Russian Defense Ministry,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Western reporters, noting that Moscow had made videos and other information about the attacks available at the U.N. meeting.
“Our air force works in Syria in coordination with the Syrian army and exclusively on targets connected to IS,” he said. “There were rumors that some civilians were injured as a result of the strikes, we have no such information. We are monitoring the situation very closely in order to ensure the precision of the strikes.”
The speaker of the upper house of Russia’s parliament, which earlier Wednesday authorized the beginning of air operations, even suggested that strikes by the U.S.-led coalition violated international law because they are not authorized by Assad’s government.
“Interference into the territory of a sovereign state can only be carried out on authorization of UN Security Council or on request of official legitimate authorities,” Valentina Matviyenko told reporters. “Those who participate in this operation have no such permission.”
