Thursday, July 19, 2012

Putin's most implacable foe

No, we're not talking about the NYT.

We're not talking about the US State Department.

We're not talking about the various oligarchs who have gone political when their ill-gotten fortunes have been clawed back by the state.

And we're certainly not talking about those young Russians, democracy lovers every one, who went so far as to cancel their Black Sea vacations so they could take part in anti-Putin demos.

We are talking about the simmering Islamist insurgency in the Caucuses.

Western media love to portray Putin as an enabler of the Syrian regime, and there's certainly an element of truth to that.

Assad's demise will, at the end of the day, be the handiwork of the Islamist radicals who are doing the lions share of the heavy lifting on the ground in Syria. It won't come as the result of the myriad "Syria experts" who pontificate daily on the evils of the Assad regime on news media all over the Western world.

That's why Putin has something to talk about when he sits down with Netanyahu.

They both understand what they're up against.

Too bad the New York Times can't figure it out.

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