Quote:
Originally Posted by soopaman2
I am conflicted in "rooting" for anyone.
I just know somehow it will become Americas fault, no matter what happens.
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It most likely will, that's the cost of being the pre-eminent global superpower, and having a number of key strategic partners and assets in the region.
You are damned if you do and damned if you don't.
Honestly what we're seeing here is the beginning of the 'Great Game Part Three', in the fact that Syria lies between two superpowers, the US (in Israel) and Russia, both have vested interests in the area, and both want a different side to win. A lot of it is down to resource gain as opposed to geographical gain as it was during the last Great Games, and some of it is down to maintaining the sway of a nation within a region in order to keep the current resources flowing.
Once again, the Great Game focuses on Eurasia which is, some claim, a geopolitical pivot point...certainly if one were to focus on how many wars have been fought in the area, one can see its importance.
Unfortunately for America, what this means is that it cannot cut itself out of this game and expect to maintain its position as a top superpower, you cannot back out of the Great Game and still expect victory, but at the same time...the Great Game doesn't usually end well.
It's telling, that the last Soviet-backed president of Afghanistan spent his final days translating Peter Hopkirks book 'The Great Game' into Pashto, hoping that: "They [Afghans] can see how our history has repeated itself...Only if we understand our history can we take steps to break the cycle" alas he was executed by the Taliban and the translation of the book has disappeared into the sands of time.
History repeats itself...oh so many times it repeats itself. There are so many similarities you can draw between now and the state of Eurasia in the 1800s...alas the tangled web of alliances made in the emergence of Germany as a major industrial power paved the way for the massacre that was the First World War. I just hope that we don't stroll down that road again.