{"id":3336,"date":"2013-09-11T14:40:00","date_gmt":"2013-09-11T18:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/?p=3336"},"modified":"2013-09-11T14:40:26","modified_gmt":"2013-09-11T18:40:26","slug":"why-the-push-for-syrian-intervention-is-about-more-than-just-assad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/2013\/09\/why-the-push-for-syrian-intervention-is-about-more-than-just-assad\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the Push for Syrian Intervention Is About More Than Just Assad"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/syria_admin_2007.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-3338 aligncenter\" alt=\"syria_admin_2007\" src=\"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/syria_admin_2007-300x298.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"298\" srcset=\"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/syria_admin_2007-300x298.jpg 300w, http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/syria_admin_2007-150x150.jpg 150w, http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/syria_admin_2007-1024x1020.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/syria_admin_2007-400x398.jpg 400w, http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/syria_admin_2007.jpg 1131w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>This is the dilemma facing Obama today. If the United States cannot extricate himself from the geopolitical imperatives posed by Iran\u2019s continuing threat to Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the safety of Persian Gulf oil supplies, it cannot extricate itself from the turmoil in Syria. Because a failure to confront Assad\u2019s excesses could be viewed as giving Iran and other outside powers a green light to meddle in the Syrian conflict, and could be seen by the Iranians as an indication that they can continue to stockpile enriched uranium with impunity, US leaders see no choice but to become involved in Syria.<\/p>\n<p>Russian involvement in the Syrian imbroglio adds another dimension to America\u2019s dilemma. Russia has long-established ties with the Syrian leadership, beginning with Assad\u2019s predecessor, his father Hafiz, and retains a vital naval base at Tartous, on Syria\u2019s Mediterranean coast. More important than these strategic interests, however, is Moscow\u2019s desire to curb America\u2019s global activism. From Russia\u2019s perspective, then, Syria is less important as a strategic asset in itself than as an arena in which to gain geopolitical advantage over the West. By the same token, a failure to contest Russia\u2019s spoiler in Syria role could be interpreted as an invitation for Moscow to undertake other obstructionist endeavors.<\/p>\n<p>Add all this together, and it becomes nearly impossible for American leaders to avoid involvement in the Syrian conflict.<\/p>\n<p><strong>MORE:<\/strong> \u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.thenation.com\/article\/176100\/why-push-syrian-intervention-about-more-just-assad#\">Why the Push for Syrian Intervention Is About More Than Just Assad | The Nation<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr\/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is the dilemma facing Obama today. If the United States cannot extricate himself from the geopolitical imperatives posed by Iran\u2019s continuing threat to Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the safety of Persian Gulf oil supplies, it cannot extricate itself from the turmoil in Syria. Because a failure to confront Assad\u2019s excesses could be viewed as&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[22,9,20],"tags":[1704,65,1703],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3336"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3336"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3336\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3340,"href":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3336\/revisions\/3340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}