Is a confrontation inevitable between the U.S. and Russia?

Russia’s military moves in Syria, combined with its military engagement in Ukraine for well over a year, have supercharged the tensions between the U.S. and its allies in the Middle East on one side, against Russia and its ally, Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has vowed opposition to the Islamic State, but his air strikes seem to be aimed more at shoring up Assad’s power.

Is a confrontation between the U.S. and the Russian Bear inevitable?

Am I mistaken?

Didn’t I read that it’s no secret that Russia is an ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad?

What did we expect?

Russia and the U.S. have cooperated in two world wars and the International Space Station.

Cooperation against the Islamic State makes more sense than confrontation, and could produce very satisfactory results.

If I’d been president when Russia invaded Crimea, I’d have airlifted U.S. armor to Ukraine and opposed them (with Ukraine’s permission, of course).

In Syria, I’d have our fighters fly combat air patrol over the rebel-held areas.

And if Russian fighters attacked anyone other than the Islamic State, I’d shoot them down.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is a self-aggrandizing bully, an egomaniacal, narcissistic psychopath in command of the world’s second-most-dangerous military.

The only solution to a bully is to stand up to him.

But the community organizer in chief is not the person to do it.

If we made it clear that Putin’s actions would precipitate an armed conflict with the U.S., maybe someone in Putin’s inner circle would remove him from power, which is the only solution to this situation.

There will be no major confrontation between Russia and the U.S.

Putin is in the process of restoring Russia to the power of the former Soviet Union.

He can do this without fear because he considers Barack Obama to be a very weak, ineffective president, which is the PC version of what he thinks about Obama.

Obama repeatedly draws “red lines,” and when these lines are crossed ignores that fact or denies that he drew a line.

Putin wants ISIS eliminated, but he wants Assad to remain in power, whereas Obama wants Assad deposed.

We need to be very careful in helping replace dictators, even presumed evil ones.

Any time we get involved in doing this, things get worse, and the countries become unstable, as happened with Moammar Gadhafi in Libya and Saddam Hussein in Iraq.

We must realize that all countries cannot live with our system of freely elected governments.

Does Russia’s move to shore up the Assad regime really raise world tensions?

No. It will either push a resolution to the Syrian war rather quickly or reveal an honest-to-God quagmire as other interested parties rush in to help out their chosen sides.

If the U.S. must confront the Russian Bear, let it be over clearing the battlefield of proxies and opportunists and leaving Syrians to fight it out for Syria’s future themselves.

Our strong military and leadership, which understood the ways of our adversaries, has kept us somewhat safe.

But President Obama didn’t want us to be a superpower, so he pulled back, giving away our status with no leverage.

Now, Putin is kicking sand in our face.

Obama’s ideology is very much like Britain’s was under Neville Chamberlain, which led to World War II.

Has Obama ever studied history?

Or, at least did he listen to our military leaders?

His ineffective leadership has led to increased chaos in the Middle East.

Is a confrontation between the U.S. and Russia inevitable?

With the current leadership, God help us!

The past Cold War with Russia started after World War II in 1948.

The Russians blockaded all ground transport into Berlin, resulting in the Berlin Airlift.

About 2.5 million Berliners were able to sustain life and freedom from communist control because of the Berlin Airlift.

Then there was the Cuban Missile Crisis during the era of President Kennedy.

Now there is this most serious Syrian crisis.

The U.S. has lost many lives and spent billions of dollars trying to democratize countries.

I have no solution to this present crisis with Russia.

I pray those with better minds than I can come up with a peaceful agreement.

I served in the Berlin Airlift and I’m a member of the Berlin Airlift Veterans Association.

This story was originally published October 9, 2015 at 6:38 PM with the headline "Is a confrontation inevitable between the U.S. and Russia?."