for a year now to say we wanted to degrade and ultimately destroy isis but we ve taken no effective action to that end. the president talks about a coalition basically of the entire world, which is embarrassing to say the least. but the fact is there s no real effective coalition led by the united states going after isis. and until that happens, isis will simply continue to consolidate its territory. look, putin is happy to focus russia s initial air attacks on non-isis targets, anti-assad but non-isis targets, because it reduces the pressure on assad. that s what russia is primarily concerned about in the near term. what do we do? it sounds like actually you re agreeing with president assad in an interview quoted in the ap. let me read you what assad says. quote, what is for certain is that the western officials are lost, lack clarity of vision, and are feeling the failure of their plots towards syria. now the western governments are paying the price of their failed
the purpose of the deployment of these air assets in syria is to help prop up assad because the assad government has been facing increased battlefield pressure not only from isis but al nusra and what s left of the moderate syrian opposition. but it s not as the president seems to believe because russia s coming from a position of weakness. i think russia understands that this is a moment of opportunity for them. they can prop up the assad regime. they can help iran. they can expand russia s influence all across the middle east, indeed challenging the united states for dominance in the region. not because of syria s weakness or russia s weakness or iran s weakness but because of barack obama s weakness. well, how can you explain, then, ambassador, what the president told us that it s putin who s weak and in a corner by doing this? because i think he s living in a parallel universe. it s been the president s policy
policy in syria because terrorism has been exploited to them as well as a huge influx of refugees. do you agree? how could we have prevented this? proving that even a stop clock is twice a day. i think assad understands that the president s confusion, his inability or unwillingness to act against assad over time coupled with his unwillingness to do anything effective about isis is what is creating this vacuum, this lack of outside influence that russia is now attempting to exploit. and not just in the syria/iraq context but i think more broadly across the middle east. so it s no wonder that assad and the russians are feeling up it these days because they ve taken advantage of this vacuum and they are filling it. and finally, what should we do? no fly zones? hillary clinton is for that. humanitarian corridors? should we bomb assad s helicopters so they can t drop the barrel bombs or is it too late? now that russian war planes are flying in the skies?
moment. the rest of the world makes up ours. as president obama discussing russian president vladimir putin while air strikes are continuing to be carried out both by russia and the u.s. and syria, but they are hitting different targets. u.s. officials announcing coalition forces are hitting the positions of the radical islam group isis as russian military sources claim that they ve carried out several flights also targeting isis positions as well. but russian president putin not heeding the calls from president obama to strike only at isis terrorists and not hit the syrian rebels as putin shows no signs of backing down. what will happen? john bolton a former u.s. ambassador to the u.n. ambassador, moscow claims they re attacking isis, are they lying? yes, very definitely.