A Commentary on the Passing Scene by Robert Paul Wolff rwolff@afroam.umass.edu
Monday, September 16, 2013
MORE FROM WILLIAM POLK
Many of you found William Polk's previous lengthy essay very useful. He has now written another long reflection on the Syrian situation, which I found most illuminating and helpful. In order to make sure that all of it, including the footnotes, is made available to you, I have posted it on box.net, accessible from the link at the top of this blog. I encourage you to take a look at it, download it if you wish, and comment if you are so moved. Bill indicates that he is at work on yet another lengthy paper discussing what the United States might do going forward. As always, I am deeply grateful to Bill for his work and for his willingness to share his thoughts with the rest of us.
Great paper by Polk. Maybe some Russian advisors/troops are going to Syria. Looks like Assad lucked out with the Russians.
ReplyDeleteHowever, Niccolo Machiavelli would probably disagree. This is what he said the Romans successfully did in foreign policy.
1) they sent out colonies strategically
2) they protected the lesser powers, without increasing their strategic or tactical strengths
3) they reduced those who were strategically strong
4) and they did not permit foreigners to make inland gains
The Russians are already guilty of numbers 3 and 4. They probably wont do number 1 but may do number 2. They stopped the U.S. from gaining a footing, and they might try to make Assad their puppet in the region. Only time will tell.