Putin’s war on Islam
There is a big difference between someone waging a war on Islamist terrorists killing in the name of Islam and someone waging war on Muslim women and children.
In yet another sign that Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared war on Sunni Islam is his latest attempt at blocking the UN from condemning Assad for attacking civilians in Aleppo. Those barrel bombs causing extreme death amongst the helpless civilians caught in the middle of the Syrian civil war seem to please Putin enough not to stop their condemnation.
We are not talking here about a UN Resolution that is binding, or one that could change the balance of power on the ground in Syria. We are talking about the world community expressing an outrage over the wanton death of civilians. Putin believes it is outrageous for the world to be outraged over the killing machine he is oiling with weapons, aid, vetoes, and words. Stalin still lives amongst us, I am afraid.
Putin’s war on Islam has consequences. While I wrote that terror inside Russia by Islamic extremists is not acceptable, Putin seems to be inviting the extremists to harm his own people. Syrian civilians dying is not enough for Mr. Putin, he wants to see his own people also suffer the consequences of his utter ignorance.
Up to now, the Islamic terror problem has been confined to the Arab world mostly with far lesser degree to other parts of the world. Putin’s actions are widening that circle exponentially and they are, by far, the most efficient recruiting tools available to embolden the 1.3 Billion Sunnis around the world to declare war on his terror. The terror in Volgograd is the direct result of his actions.
It is incumbent upon the world community to nip this bud before it is too late. Have we not learned anything from Obama’s mistakes in Syria, which have caused a spill and turned the Syrian war into a regional war ever since he refused to dismantle the terror of Assad, Hezbollah, and Iran?
The US today is experiencing a vacuum in leadership. At the White House, we have elected a spoiled kid who thinks he is in a toy store learning and experimenting as he plays. Look at how Putin is playing Obama like a play-dough picking-up from where Erdogan of Turkey left of. Why can’t any European leader take hold of Obama and shake him from his slumber? Only the radicals are successful in influencing Obama.
Europe must fill the vacuum with one voice and one policy to replace an absent US President on one side and to stop a Russian mad man on the other. Putin is inviting radical Islam to grow and Europe must take a tough stand by verbally assaulting Putin without any mincing because Putin’s actions may yet have far deeper repercussions for the developed Continent than they may for the under-developed Russia. When it spills, it may overflow.
It is no longer about Syria anymore. It is about irresponsible world leaders causing more havoc with their policies that could take us down a far more sinister road.
Stop Putin now before it is too late.