Is The Cold War Really Over?

Is The Cold War Really Over In Relation To This Current Syrian Civil War?

Syria as a country is a near- failed state having lost over 220,000 lives and over 3 million refugees scattered abroad as a result of the Civil war that began in 2011 which was in the name of the people of Syria's quest for democracy.

The United States of America (USA) holding its belief that all countries in the world embrace democracy inspired the Arab nations in these few years like Tunisia, Egypt and Libya among others to rebel against their Authoritarian regimes and Syria is the latest. Russia however, is against the overthrow of Authoritarian leaders hence their support for the Bashar Assad's government in Syria who Russia has ties with in the past of being a country that supported Russia against Western Super powers and also, Russia being a big weapons supplier to Syria and has extensive defensive contracts with the Bashar Assad regime.

I am of the view that had Russia supported the USA and other Western countries efforts to halt Assad's killing of the innocent Syrians who were fed up with his regime and lost their legitimacy in time, we would not have had this issue of the proliferation of warring factions in Syria which has become so confusing as now we have the Bashar -Assad forces teaming up with its main rival, the Anti- Syria regime group to fight against another faction, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) .

I believe Russia made this happen due to their Ideology of not wanting the USA to be in control of the Middle- East region in the pursuit of their (USA) political and economic interests which is reminiscent of the Soviet Union's creation of the Zhdanov Doctrine in the Cold War era as a counter- policy to the USA's inception of the Marshall Plan which the Soviet Union said it was a ploy of the USA to gain global domination through American Imperialism.

In conclusion, one can say that the Cold war is still alive. Looking at Russia's backing of the Assad led government of Syria instead of teaming up with the USA and the other Western countries to overthrow him. If this had happened, peace could be won as it is apparent that it is the wish of the people of Syria too. But, if the U.S. and Russia have come together to fight the ISIS, the U.S. might only want to maintain their stance of limiting their co-operation with Russia. The U.S. will only limit their basic strategies with Russia in their quest to halt the ISIS invasion of Syria which is reminiscent of what happened in World War II where the USA failed to disclose fully their acquisition of the nuclear bomb which also might be a factor that led to the Cold war.

Contributed by Mr. Justice Brandford