Pat Buchanan, one of America's most insightful columnists observes:
To Iran, Assad is ... A crucial link in the Shiite Crescent that extends from Tehran to Baghdad to Damascus to Beirut.
To which should be added his observation:
Bashar Assad is Russia’s ally and provides Putin with his sole naval base in the Med.
And we have been talking about for so long, an axis, or Crescent if you prefer, involving Russia, fully armed with nuclear weapons, with naval access from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, possessed of much of the world's oil resources, positioned to invert nearly a century long balance of power, inclined toward terrorism and viciously anti-American.
Add China who have already cooperated with this frightening combination of players and we have an existential threat to the United States.
To those who believe that Vladimir Putin is benign, look at a map.
To Pat Buchanan, just because intervention one day is counterproductive does not mean that intervention another day is indispensable to our survival. The world looked entirely different on December 8, 1941.
Good good man, you have the nerve to post more of your pompous BS? After the fool you made of yourself in the primaries with your condescending lectures that were wrong on every single point. Yet here you are again, posting like you know what hell you are talking about. Have you no shame?
Without getting into the whole Cruz thing (you came around sufficiently, eventually!), you make a good point.
“Intervention” is not always the wrong answer. We just need a lot smarter people making those decisions, and then the stomach to see them through, if action is necessary.
As for Putin:
The enemy of my enemy — might just be another enemy. Or, he may be a temporary help, but few such allies stay allies, unless given very good reason. Putin well could be an ally to the US, as you’ve noted elsewhere. But, I also agree, he is very, very dangerous.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisoning_of_Alexander_Litvinenko#Possible_motivation_for_using_polonium-210
Sobering stuff...
“....just because intervention one day is counterproductive does not mean that intervention another day is indispensable to our survival.....”
Perhaps I am misunderstanding your point. Is it possible you intended to say “not indispensable”?