Wu Guangqiang

    jw368@163.com

    FOR decades, the world has been accustomed to seeing American warplanes fly freely into foreign countries to stage airstrikes against an “enemy” and American warships fire cruise missiles to destroy targets a thousand miles away. But now, Russian fighters and warships are doing the same thing in Syria — they are pounding what Russians call IS terrorists.

    Russia’s surprise move has obviously irritated Washington — The Kremlin is stealing the show from the White House and stepping on its toes.

    While Russia has claimed that its military operations have significantly reduced IS military potential, U.S. President Barack Obama has been blasting Russian airstrikes.

    Since both the U.S. and Russia are vowing to clamp down on IS, why is Washington going head-to-head with Moscow instead of collaborating?

    Needless to say, it’s a superpower showdown in Syria — Putin has grabbed a great opportunity to fight back against the American strategic squeeze and safeguard Russia’s vital interests in the Middle East.

    The U.S.’s criticism of Russian military intervention reeks of hypocrisy.

    The White House’s accusations include Russians’ failure in distinguishing between IS and moderate Sunni opposition that wants to see Syrian President Bashar Assad go, the killing of civilians and fueling IS recruitment. The accusations came along with Obama’s “kind advice:” “a military solution alone … is just going to get them stuck in a quagmire. It won’t work, and they will be there for a while if they don’t take a different course.”

    Hard facts leave the accusations feeble and futile.

    Two years after the U.S. and its “coalition” began waging airstrikes against IS, the ferocious terror group was getting stronger day by day, occupying more and more territories in Syria and Iraq and rapidly expanding into other parts of the region. Consequently, tens of thousands of refugees are pouring into Europe.

    Three weeks since Russian military operations began, however, the world has seen remarkable results. According to Syrian official sources, 40 percent of IS military infrastructure was destroyed in the first week of the airstrikes.

    With the Russian fighters’ air cover, Syrian forces are launching a massive ground offensive, driving IS and other terrorist fighters out of many parts of Syria. This has served as a strong proof that without the role of the Syrian Government and its armed forces, it is impossible to eliminate IS.

    A review of the U.S. “efforts to fight IS” shows that the U.S. is more interested in overthrowing Assad than in wiping out IS. According to Russian military sources, 80 percent of U.S. airstrike missions were not actually carried out in the past two years. The White House spent large amounts of money training “moderate fighters” to combat IS only to end up as a joke.

    Russia’s apparent effectiveness and the U.S.’s ineptness have yielded unexpected fallout: the Iraqi Government has shown that it intends to ask for Russian aid in bombing IS forces in Iraq.

    America’s concerns about “Russian air raids fueling IS recruiting” seem unnecessary. According to RT (Russia Today), thousands of IS fighters as well as militants from other extremist groups have fled Syria out of fear of Russian airstrikes.

    The accusation of killing civilians is even more hypocritical. On Oct. 5, U.S. fighters bombed a charity hospital in north Afghanistan, killing at least 22 people.

    Another reason that Russian airstrikes are hailed in many countries is the popular belief that the U.S. was largely responsible for the chaos in the Middle East and North Africa. The view has even been echoed in Washington itself.

    Donald Trump, the leading Republican presidential candidate, said in an interview that the Middle East would be more stable if Iraqi and Libyan former leaders Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi were still in power. He also suggested that ousting Assad would yield a “mess” similar to the ones in Iraq and Libya.

    A long, twisted drama is still in store. I hope that both powers will join hands to fight the world’s common foes.

    (The author is an English tutor and freelance writer.)