Pax America Case Study

Now as then, ruthless authoritarian powers (Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy in Spain; Russia and Iran in Syria) are flexing regional muscle by helping a fellow dictator wage war on a helpless civilian population, even aiding in the destruction of entire cities — Aleppo and Homs are new Guernicas. Now as then, Western powers, including the United States, are doing nothing, preferring a policy of non-intervention — or, in America’s case, deliberate retreat — that borders on outright cowardice. And now as then, the Western democracies are reaping the whirlwind for their weakness. For the nations of Europe, it’s the refugee crisis now pouring across their borders. For the United States, it is the demise of the Pax Americana in the Middle East, which will be steadily replaced by a

Satellite images released early this month confirmed that Russia had been conducting military-transport flights into Syria, as well as constructing a forward air base with an air-traffic-control station, an asphalt runway, and mobile housing units for Russian troops near the coastal city of Latakia. All these added up to a permanent Russian facility for sustained air operations in support of Bashar Assad’s embattled government, operations that could complicate American efforts to use the same airspace to carry out strikes against the Islamic State. Meanwhile, Russian troops — from the elite 810th Marine Brigade, which supplied many of the “little green men” for Vladimir Putin’s takeover of the Crimea — arrived in Syria and reportedly entered combat operations against Syrian rebels in the Assad family heartland on Syria’s northern coast, as have Russian tanks. RELATED: Putin Is Expanding His Power in the Middle East — We Must Counter Him This dramatic escalation of Russian involvement has been overshadowed by the Syrian-refugee crisis engulfing Europe. But these two developments stem from the same source: President Obama’s feckless and