August 29th, 2008
Bashar Assad has been left red faced after an ill-conceived attempt to restart the Cold War was quickly rejected by Russia. Assad misread the Russia- Georgia war to mean that Russia was ready to rebuild the Soviet Union. He embarked on a hasty misadventure to offer Syrian territory to Russia to re-open former Soviet military bases in exchange for advanced weapons. Instead of coming home with a goodie bag of weapons and a stronger alliance with a major world power, Assad received a luke warm reception and returned having reinforced the his image an inexperienced and weak leader. Still coping with the global backlash over its invasion of Georgia, Russia only agreed to sell Syria defensive weapons that wouldn’t upset the balance of power in the Middle East.
Assad “‘exposed his weakness as a reckless gambler having bet too much on the wrong number as he further raised suspicions in Tehran’ that he was ready to sell his participation in the Iran-led axis for an alliance with a bigger power such as Russia." Assad drew harsh criticism from the US for his lack of judgment and appears to have only truly succeeded in demonstrating his impulsiveness. Looks like even though Putin may want to resurrect the Soviet Union, he is smarter than Assad when it comes to actually making that happen. No wonder Assad hasn't been able to get a cult following among Syrians the way Russians just want someone like Putin.
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