Posted on 10/02/2015 11:09:36 AM PDT by Kaslin
If the humiliation of the Obama administration continues at this rate, by this time next week you should expect to see Secretary of State John Kerry on all fours at the United Nations, getting paddled by the Russian foreign minister and shouting, "Thank you, comrade! May I have another?"
On Monday, President Obama and Vladimir Putin had a meeting at the United Nations. All Putin wanted from it was a photo of the two men huddling together. The Russian president needed to show his people that he's still a major player on the world stage, a big man driving events. Obama, who spent much of the last year trying to isolate the butcher of Ukraine, gave Putin exactly what he wanted. In wall-to-wall coverage, Russian media celebrated the big man's diplomatic triumph and his geo-strategic genius.
What was Obama's price for granting Putin this PR windfall? The leader of the free world made the Russian autocrat listen to another tedious lecture about how Putin doesn't understand his country's interests as well as Obama does. No doubt Putin would have preferred to avoid yet another seminar on how the word should work. But if Paris was worth a mass for Henry IV, no doubt Syria (and not just Syria) was worth yet another sonorous tutorial about the moral arc of the universe doing jobs our president won't.
While Obama droned on about the importance of cooperation and communication, Putin was probably counting the minutes until he could get back to reviewing Syrian targets for his bombers.
It didn't take long for Putin to reveal what he thinks of Obama's sermons on the importance of communication. On Wednesday, a three-star Russian general marched into the U.S. embassy in Baghdad and issued a démarche -- a fancy diplomatic word for a formal, non-negotiable declaration. The general reportedly instructed U.S. officials that Russia would commence airstrikes within the hour and that American forces had better clear out. In diplomatic terms, it was somewhere between a white-gloved slap in the face and a spit in the eye.
A State Department spokesman later said, "We've seen media reporting that has suggested Russian missions have begun."
There's a nice irony here in that Obama has often said that he only learned about the failures of his administration -- corruption at the IRS, malfeasance at the VA, etc. -- from media reports. So perhaps Putin thought this was the way Obama liked to be informed of unfortunate events.
Regardless, Putin's planes started their bombing runs. Russia claimed they were targeting the Islamic State, but the bombs landed where intended: on U.S.-backed Syrian rebels. Russia's confidence was well-founded. Upon hearing the news that our allies on the ground were being slaughtered, Kerry met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at the U.N. Lavrov, being the more important figure, spoke first at the press conference.
Then, Kerry issued this less-than-blistering denunciation: "I relayed and reiterated the concerns that I expressed in the course of the U.N. Security Council meeting which was led by Russia today: concerns that we have about the nature of the targets, the type of targets, and the need for clarity with respect to them. And it is one thing obviously to be targeting ISIL. We're concerned, obviously, if that is not what is happening."
No doubt our friends are reassured by the news that if Russia bombs them, America will immediately respond by expressing our "concerns."
At the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Ash Carter convened a press conference where he brought all the urgency of a faculty department chair assigning new parking spaces. He did say that he takes the Russians "at their word."
"My problem isn't that I don't understand what they're doing," Carter said. "I think my problem is that I think what they're doing is going to backfire and is counterproductive."
This is the Obama doctrine in a nutshell. The president's favorite rhetorical trope is to justify withdrawing from the world on the grounds that the "international community" will fill the vacuum created by our abdication. But the international community's troops always stay in their barracks. Meanwhile, bad actors -- Russia, China, Iran et al. -- seize the opening. Our president responds with mournful words that doing so is not in the villains' interests. Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons, and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's bombing of his own people demonstrate, according to Obama, that they are on "the wrong side of history."
Having made his pronouncement, the ostrich buries his head back in the sand.
Nice of Ass Carter to summarize the basic problem.
To kabar:
You are delusional.
Someone has to stop the out of control muslims.
Obama will not do it.
Obama is so gay.
How do you cut someone down to size, who had no size to begin with?
Huh?
Vlad is picking on the already vertically challenged?
I see no evidence of that save the failed, ludicrous effort to train Syrian anti-Assad forces. The targets of our air strikes have been ISIS. Hillary and Obama said Assad must go over four years ago. Hillary said it was not a matter of if but when. As is the case with most things Obama deals with, he is all talk and no action. Just another line in sand to be ignored.
The majority of US citizens recognize that ISIS is pure evil, and must be disintegrated. If Syrian rebels are in proximity with ISIS and not fighting them, they're part of the problem.
Americans don't want any more US ground troops in the ME. The fact is, that only USA troops can do the job. And Obama won't send them nor is there the political will to do so in Congress.
I don't fear Russia at this point. I fear the annihilation of western culture while the US and allies play labdog for their Saudi masters.
The US has witnessed the greatest mass migration of people in history, i.e., to the US from the rest of world. We are being colonized by the Third World. They will take over the country thru the ballot box and annihilate the vision and values of our Founders. It may already be irreversible.
Well...
...they BOTH have two vowels and two esses!
Yes when I tell some folks on here that Reagan would have zero chance being elected in California today, they think I’m nuts.
You are delusional if you believe Putin is helping us to stop "out of control Muslims."
By 2019, half of the children 18 and under will be minorities as defined by the USG. Each cohort that turns 18 is more Dem than the previous one. The Reps have lost the popular vote in five out of the last six Presidential elections. Demography is destiny.
Yes every year 2.48 million (mostly white, largely Republican) people die and are replaced by 2.52 million (mostly minority, heavily Democrat) folks.
It’s not a good forecast.
"Hahahaha. US ntl security? Hahahaha.
You gotta be kidding, Vlad. All I want is my cut."
"How'm I gonna get-rich-quick like the Clintons if Putin won't cooperate?"
Worse than the peanut farmer. No more ‘Rats America; we can’t afford them.
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