RT, the Kremlin-owned, English-language propaganda channel, has been waging a campaign against international action to halt the brutal crackdown by Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s Moscow-backed regime. Last week the network hosted Larry Wilkerson, formerly the chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, who claimed that the "casualty list is roughly balanced" between Assad’s heavily armed forces and the rebels fighting to end his rule.
Earlier today, RT found another prominent American spokesman for Moscow’s policy of non-intervention in Lawrence Korb, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.
Korb told the network:
LAWRENCE KORB: I tell you, before you go to war—and a war of choice, I mean, it’s not a war of necessity--you have to look at the cost and benefits. Would there be certain benefits? Yeah, but what about the costs? We just don’t know, we’re not quite sure who the rebels are, who we’d be protecting. It’s one thing to say, okay, let’s send air power, but are you willing to send in ground troops to follow up?
ALYONA MINKOVSKI: But why should we be the ones sending in air power if there was an international consensus to do it, as well?
KORB: I think it should be the international community. This is not an American problem; it’s a problem that impacts the Arab League and countries in Europe. I think Libya is a model for the way to do it. If other people are concerned, we can play a part, but I don’t think we’re there yet at all.
On Mar. 6, CENTCOM commander Gen. James Mattis told the Senate Armed Services Committee, "The Russians have provided very advanced integrated air defense capabilities—missiles, radars, that sort of thing—that would make imposition of any no-fly zone challenging if we were to go that direction."
It would seem that the Russians are also providing cover for the Syrian regime in the media, with help from left-wing activists like Korb.