The War between Russia and the United States
Written by Alfonso Elizondo
After Russia and the United States started a dispute over the US attack on a Syrian regime air base, George Friedman, the brilliant expert on geopolitics and international affairs gave an analysis of this conflict and raised 3 basic issues: US strategy in the Middle East and Russia and Russian strategy in general.
Friedman says that neither country has clear strategies, and he explains that the US has been caught in the crossfire since intervening in Iraq to overthrow Saddam Hussein. The logical thing was to allow the Shia majority to form a government, but they were influenced by the Iranians. At the same time the Shiites supported the US because they hoped to form the government, while Washington blocked the creation of a Shiite regime to limit Iran’s influence in Iraq.
After this, the United States never managed to gain control of Iraq and signed an alliance with Sunni blocks, but the emergence of ISIS showed that this had not worked. Then Trump decided to attack Syria and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, without explaining why, declared that the days of Al Assad were numbered.
Friedman says that the US chose to take this path ‘because they did not have a solution to the problem and could not abandon it for strategic and political reasons, so they looked for realistic solutions.’
Regarding Russian policies and Trump’s expressions of desire to join with the Kremlin in the fight against ISIS, Friedman expressed the view that it was not such an absurd idea as Trump’s detractors said. However, Russia’s regional policy is not to defeat ISIS at this time, but to create challenges for the US to cause the White House to ask for help from Russia and in this way, Putin would restore the old Soviet Union policy.
Friedman ends by saying that both Russians and Americans are developing tactics without any strategy.