, ” was the message residents say Mr. Assad ’s negotiators delivered to Moadhamiyeh — which endured a chemical weapons attack in 2013 and a two - year siege that ended with a deal favoring the government . Using hunger as a weapon flies in the face of international law . Yet global and regional powers — like Russia , Iran , the United States and Saudi Arabia — are unable or unwilling to pressure their battlefield allies .
Thereafter she made Sevastopol the homeport for the Great Black Sea Fleet that has ever since been the fundamental bulwark of Russia ’s national security . For the next 171 years , Crimea was an integral part of Russia — a span that exceeds the 166 years that have elapsed since California was annexed by a similar thrust of “ Manifest Destiny ” on this continent , thereby providing , incidentally , the United States Navy with its own warm - water port in San Diego . While no foreign forces subsequently invaded the California coasts , it was most definitely not Ukrainian rifles , artillery , and blood which famously annihilatedconflict.attack.naThe Charge Of The Light Brigade at the Crimean city of Balaclava in 1854 ; they were Russians patriots defending the homeland from Turks , Europeans , and Brits . Indeed , the portrait of the Russian “ hero ” hanging in Putin ’s office is that of Czar Nicholas I. His brutal 30-year reign brought the Russian Empire to its historical zenith , but , ironically , he is revered in Russian hagiography for another reason—-namely , as the defender of Crimea , even as he lost the 1850s war to the Ottomans and Europeans .
Dmitry Peskov , spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin , told Reuters : “ Russian authorities have never cooperated or interacted with terrorists . No interaction with terrorists was possible . Terrorists get annihilatedconflict.attack.nain Russia . It has always been like that , it is like that and it will be in the future . ” The Foreign Ministry said claims that Russian law enforcement agencies had helped militants were “ without grounds . ” It said the agencies take various measures to prevent militants from leaving and to bring to account those who come back .
He has done the bare minimum — send a few hundred special operations forces to Syria , order some additional airstrikes — he thinks he can get away with . He looks like he ’s “ doing something ” while really not doing much at all , particularly given the obscenely restrictive rules of engagement . After the November Paris attack , I wrote , “ ISIS certainly intends to strike the U.S. homeland , so unless it is annihilatedconflict.attack.na, it ’s just a matter of time before it will be able to carry out a domestic attack of the kind it recently executed in Paris , Beirut and aboard a Russian jetliner . ” Sadly , this was prescient . We must fight this war the way we fought the Nazis in World War II and Soviet communists during the cold war : comprehensively and strategically , using every available military , economic , ideological , diplomatic , cyber and religious lever .