By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog
I’m going to keep this brief, Save Jerseyans, because frankly, the entire situation makes me sick to my stomach. Still, it needs to be said:
Russia’s victory in the Syrian crisis political lotto was born out of weakness, Save Jerseyans. Obama’s weakness.
And make no mistake about it… the Russians came out ahead on this one. President Obama didn’t win a peace; frankly, it defies belief that a guy who’s spent his public career decrying “peace through strength” is suddenly relying on it to spin his way into a better position.
Barack Obama nearly started WWIII. What some folks don’t seem to grasp is the fact that Vladimir Putin didn’t want a “hot” war any more than the U.S. Congress seems disposed to back one. The former KGB agent is playing a long game. In this situation, he played Obama beautifully and got exactly what he wanted (and likely a little more).
So beautifully, in fact, one has to wonder if this is really epic incompetence even by Washington standards or, alternatively, if this is the “flexibility” that President Obama promised Putin’s lieutenant before the 2012 election…
As we sit here today, Save Jerseyans, Russia’s President looks to keep his client state for no additional cost AND enjoys an elevated international position after having shamed the U.S. government into backing down from the strike that it clearly wanted.
Explain to me how that’s a “win” for the west?
Bonus points for the Bear: Putin is the new global go-to guy. He gets to play the peacemaker role for confiscating Assad’s chemical weapons after those awful Americans tried to start another Iraq war to get them. For the first time in a long time (read: ever), at least on the surface, an American president’s government looks like the bellicose rogue regime threatening world stability and Putin’s Russia appears to be a sober arbiter of global conflicts.
You and I both know it’s a lot more complicated than all that. Russia is willing to take what it wants, but like it or not, idealists, perception is everything in this world of ours, and President Obama has given our enemies (and timid allies) every reason to believe that you can’t count on America to act boldly, decisively, or even just coherently when there’s trouble afoot.
They may not trust Russia, sure, but if you’re trying to decide which world power needs to be taken the most seriously, then you can’t ignore how President Obama just allowed himself to be used and abused by President Putin.
Let’s not give Russia too much credit. Initially, Putin was simply trying to protect Assad’s government from an insurgency as any superior power would do for its protectorate. Putin unexpectedly hit the geopolitical sweepstakes by taking full advantage gross and repeated Obama Administration blunders. President Obama will likely accept the forfeiture of Syria’s chemical weapons because the Administration backed itself into a corner by saying they’d accept it in lieu of a strike. It’s a sequel to POTUS’s original red line blunder; a veteran fopo operator knows that the goal is to limit THE OTHER GUY’S OPTIONS, not your own!
All in all, a great couple of weeks for Mother Russia. Ask Pravda.
So why am I sick to my stomach? It’s not from reading Russian propaganda it’s from the truth, however mutated, lying between the lines. A weak America inevitably results in a less secure world, and at this instant point in time, I’m wondering where Russia, China or another belligerent force on the global stage will next elect to take take advantage of Barack Obama’s incompetence. They have every reason to expect success in so doing.
If President Obama bombs Syria you are against it. If he pursues diplomatic means in Syria you are against it. One thing we do know is that Syria has and has used WMD's, unlike the stove-piped intelligence the Bush administration used to justify going into Iraq.