Posted on 09/06/2014 1:19:43 PM PDT by No One Special
Obama’s cultists often compare him to a chess master, playing the long game. There is another chess metaphor that is far more apt, however. Specifically, there is a story that has gained wide currency in which Vladimir Putin compares Obama to a chess playing pigeon. Putin supposedly said: ”Negotiating with Obama is like playing chess with a pigeon. The pigeon knocks over all the pieces, s**** on the board and then struts around like it won the game.”
This story is almost certainly false. The chess playing pigeon meme dates to far before Obama’s time. But there is no person that the story fits better. The story has resonated precisely because it is so right. If Putin didn’t say it, he should have, and he would have been dead on.
For proof, one need go no further than Obama’s claim that he, and he alone, is responsible for the cease fire agreement (such as it is) in Ukraine:
“I want to point out, the only reason that we’re seeing the ceasefire at this moment is because of both the sanctions that have already been applied and the threat of further sanctions,” Obama saidfrom Wales where a NATO summit is taking place. [Emphasis added.]
The Reason article linked above points out several of the problems with Obama’s statement, but it misses the biggest one. The colossal one.
Obama effectively asserts that the ceasefire is a setback for Putin that he was forced to accept due to the pain of sanctions and the prospect of worse sanctions to come.
This is a total inversion of reality. The reality is that this is a major victory for Putin. For crissakes, Putin and Lavrov have been demanding a ceasefire for weeks. Months even. Demanding. It’s what they’ve wanted all along, and has led their list of demands. It saves the Russian rebel puppets from defeat, and allows them to cement their position in Donbas. It forces Poroshenko to acknowledge the Russian puppet states as legitimate interlocutors. It creates a frozen conflict that makes Ukraine toxic for Europe and Nato. It creates a bleeding ulcer inside Ukraine that will sap the poor country of its vitality, and keep it on the precipice of becoming a failed state.
From Putin’s perspective, what’s not to like? To love, even, given his obsessive hatred for an independent Ukraine.
The timing is also telling. When did the ceasefire happen? In the immediate aftermath of a dramatic Russian escalation that inflicted a bloody, devastating defeat on Ukraine and turned the tide of battle. This forced Poroshenko to negotiate from a position of weakness, and allowed Putin to negotiate from a position of strength. This is exactly contrary to the impression that Obama attempts to convey, which is that Putin was forced into concessions.
There are two, and only two, possibilities here. It is hard to decide which one is more frightening.
The first one is that Obama is so clueless that he does not know that Putin has been demanding a ceasefire, and that a ceasefire achieves his main strategic objectives. So clueless that he does not know that this is exactly what Putin wants. Hell, he’s not even B’rer Rabbit, who had to use reverse psychology to get thrown into the b’rer patch where he was born and bred. Putin said that’s exactly where he wanted to go, and Obama doesn’t even understand.
The second is that Obama knows, but is so intent on shunting the Ukrainian crisis to the bottom of the pile that he shamelessly goes all Orwell, and declares down to be up, war to be peace, and defeat to be victory. That Obama wants to put the “Problem Managed” stamp on Ukraine, and walk away, perhaps to sneak a peek at his Nobel Peace Prize, and say “I’ve earned it!-or at least I can pretend I did!”
Clueless or mendacious. Pick one. There is no third choice.
Ukraine: you’re on your own. Which, methinks, is precisely why you entered into such a humiliating deal.
But don’t think Putin will rest on his laurels. To the contrary, he smells weakness. How else to explain that a mere two days after Obama stood in Tallinn, Estonia and delivered in stentorian tones a solemn promise to defend Estonia and other allies to the last, that the FSB launched an operation inside Estonia, and kidnapped a member of the country’s counterintelligence service?
This isn’t over, people. Not by a long shot. The fecklessness on display daily, including notably at today’s Nato summit in Wales, acts on Putin like an aphrodisiac. The escalations have just begun, and either President Pigeon doesn’t understand, or understands but doesn’t care enough to do anything about it.
Either way, he's still an overrated Camel Dung Stacker............
I’m not a big fan of the US getting involved in European border disputes and civil wars, but I agree with the author that Obama’s response to the ceasefire is laughable.
The pigeon playing chess story is quite apt, whether the topic is Iraq, Ukraine, or ObamaCare. Sure, he may get his way, but only ‘cause he befouled the game.
He’s multi-faceted. He’s both.
We all know what pigeons are best known for
Next up - 0bama and NK’s Dear leader in a face off as to who’s cuter.
I would guess that Hussein Soetoro would fall for the Scholar’s Mate every time. It’s entirely possible he would also fall for the Fool’s Mate, even though that checkmate requires White to play two very specific moves.
For placing himself in a position of strength and using it to broker peace in the Ukraine... Øbama’s Nobel Peace Prize should be stripped, melted down, and restruck as a new medal for Putin.
rofltmo...good one!
And a Post Turtle!
“This story is almost certainly false.”
Metaphorically it’s not. He and Kerry are steadily getting
pimp slapped around by Putin yet there he is with his
nose in the air on the golf course in his mom jeans acting
like he is a respectable human being.
“Obama is definitely a pigeon.
And a Post Turtle!”
And a rat. He’s a raturgeon.
The usual rule is that when you get very busy patting yourself on the back.. ten minutes later you’ll be picking your ass up off the floor.
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