White House officials were left scrambling…
“We have seen reports that President Putin has announced a planned withdrawal of Russian forces from Syria. We expect to learn more about this in the coming hours,” said one senior administration official on Monday afternoon.
A speedy Russian exit from Syria would confound President Obama’s talking point that Putin had walked into a “quagmire” in that country’s civil war that he would come to regret. Obama made the case most recently in an interview with the Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, in which Obama said Russia was “overextended” and “bleeding” in Syria.
It’s telling that Obama thinks that the only thing that matters is the agenda at international gab-fests. That’s because the president, like most European heads of state, lives in a 21st century, post-power world where international law is more meaningful than brute force. Putin, by contrast, inhabits a 19th century, Realpolitik world where strongmen act to advance their own interests with scant regard for the feelings of other states, much less of multilateral institutions such as the G20 or the United Nations. In the clash between these two incompatible visions of the world, there is no doubt which one is winning: From Crimea to Syria, Putin is rewriting the rules of the international game in his favor.
No, Putin is not “rewriting the rules of the international game in his favor”.
He is simply abiding by the only rules that really matter.
Putin proved he is the chess player. Obama just proved that he is the chicken that plays Tic-Tac-Toe at the Fair.
Max Boot in the LA Times is right. Putin succeeded in his principal objective, propping up the Assad regime which was in danger of collapse. He can reduce the scale of Russian commitment, because Russia achieved this. Why Washington would be befuddled is beyond me, unless they are truly as naive as they appear.
In other words, Putin lives in the real world while Obama lives in the land of fantasy…..as can be seen with his ridiculous focus on “global warming”. And our “leader”, Zoolander follows Obama off the ideological cliff.
Ah yes, But wait till he tangles with turdo a doo!
He’ll meet his match then, I tell ya…there’ll be blood on the walls!
He’ll rue the day he ever methed with Juthtin !
Putin tired to explain war to Obama this way: War is like going to the bathroom. You go in you do your business and you get out. Obungles is still trying to figure out step one.
Never forget that if PM Selfie decides to unfriend Putin on facebook he will be informing him ‘straight to his face’.
Putin called the EU’s bluff…Russia is vilified but secretly expected to defeat ISIS. The EU/NATO countries will have to beg Putin for help, or be overrun with more refuges from Syria….The US (Obama) was never serious about the ME
Trump & Putin will deal with ISIS….Obama is told to get lost
I simply cannot wait for the day Putin meets our PM,and I’d give my left testicle to hear Putin’s honest assessment of our Boy Wonder afterward.
Uh, make that my left ear,I’m going deaf anyway.
Obama should have checked Facebook. Clearly the Assad regime has weathered the storm against the rebels, plus this operation must be costing a lot of money and resources.
When PM Selfie comes face to face with Putin, Putin will flash him and say “This is how big a Mig 21 is” and selfie will cower in fear and wet himself.
Sibling toddlers having a dispute about the stuffy toy and Momma comes in and restores the peace
Kids on the playground have a dispute on the playground and the teacher comes and restores the peace.
My neighbor and I have a dispute and the police come and restore the peace.
But when it is a country to country dispute, who is going to come restore the peace? Seriously the UN? Sorry Mr PM, But Mr Putin or Mr whoever-runs-China wanted to take everything we have there is not a darn thing we could do except call the Americans…….
So to you Mr Obama, The older siblings gets the toy with Mom not around. The bigger kid on the playground when its 7:30 at night usually gets his way and if the next door neighbour is a Hells Angel I will be a little less inclined to call police over some noise. You need to be the leader of the free word. But every speech you still sound like you are campaighning.
Putin a bully? nah, just looking out for himself. I just wish Canada/USA would too.
Funny how most religions,except for the Sunni Ways one, could live in peace under Assad’s leadership.
Obama and Hillary did their wondrous Russian Reset and Arab Spring, encouraging the revolt in Syria.
Then they left the so called moderate hanging, ISIS filled the vacuum.
Bottom line Hillary set the Syrian civil war afire,then as a fearless democrat ran away and now blame Assad for setting loose the murderous slime.
Typical progressives.
Russia came to the rescue of the civilized people of Syria.Better life under a dictator than sold into slavery,assuming you miss being beheaded or burned alive.
This world is getting truly weird .
So called leaders who live in delusion.
Here we go again:
http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/blog/michael-j-totten/dont-cooperate-assad
“One of the grim ironies of the Syrian civil war is that IS has flourished in Syria in part due to the manipulations of the Assad regime itself. As initially peaceful protests turned into sectarian war in the latter half of 2011,
…
On the other hand, if the rebel ranks were dominated by Al Qaeda-style Islamist groups, the West would balk at providing support and could eventually even side with Damascus.
In a cynical but skillfully exploited strategy, hundreds of Islamic militants were released from Syrian prisons in the first few months of the then generally peaceful uprising.
Some of those militants became leading figures in groups like Jabhat al-Nusra, which today is Al Qaeda’s official affiliate in Syria and one of the most effective anti-Assad factions. IS was originally an Iraq-based group that began extending its influence into Syria in 2012, drawing ever-expanding numbers of recruits and earning a reputation for brutality. Unlike Jabhat al-Nusra and other rebel factions, ISIS has been more interested in acquiring territory and funds to build its self-declared caliphate than in tackling the Syrian Army. And the Assad regime, until recently at least, was generally content to leave IS alone, especially as the extremist group’s attacks against moderate rebel rivals turned it into a tacit ally of Damascus.”
Please do your homework, this is two year old news. Or did you know it already but felt a need to fellate Pootin anyway?
Didn’t you hear PM Clown Prince? He said he was going to *stare down* Vladimir Putin. Why not? He’s effectively written off our military, so that’s all that’s left.
And Puti doesn’t like gays..Openly.. Poor O’bismal and Justy are pooping ther diapers.. Cant wait to see Putin crush Our Lisperer’s hand when they first meet.
Golly gee wiz! I guess ‘bammy was right about Syria being a quagmire for Putin and his armed forces. Pretty soon he’ll be begging NATO to step in to save his…
Oh, what???
Nevermind.
Right on all three points. Boot is right that Putin practices a Realpolitik identical to that major nations practiced in the centuries, not only the nineteenth century, before the SJW crowd took over in the western world. China is practicing its own version of Realpolitik.
Western leaders like Obama and our own Shiny Pony do not have a clue how to deal with Realpolitik other than to offer another verse of kumbaya and delusions.
Forgive me if I consider the source you cite as just a little bent toward USA self justification.
The war has been going on since the Arab Spring fiasco.
What happened from 2008 on?
Who incited the “Rebellion”?
Peaceful uprising?
In whose eyes?
There is a stunning stupidity toward middle eastern affairs here in North America.
We remove the strongman in Iraq, the country implodes.
We refuse to support the Egyptian Military, to force them to surrender to democratic islam, country implodes.Military saves country, no thanks to us.
We agitate Syrian malcontents to embrace democracy,then turn our backs on them, country implodes.
Now the strange thing was, each of these dictatorships were fairly benign toward our interests.
There nations fairly stable.
The result of our help?
Hell on earth for most of their citizens.
Yet Assad and Putin are the devils here?
Agreed, and don’t forget Libya. The “democracy” bringers screwed up there as well.
“Forgive me if I consider the source you cite as just a little bent toward USA self justification.”
Colonialista doesn’t see Assad as the devil.
And he isn’t a knee-jerk Obama supporter.
You see Obama’s policy as being in the U.S.A.’s interest?
Few people think that Obama does policy with the interest of the U.S.A. in mind, Colonialista is not one of them.
That said, I think Putin supported Assad because he saw a strategic need to do so.
Economically, Russia cannot afford to fight on two fronts.
The front that interests Putin personally is Eastern Europe.
Those Russian forces that are being pulled out of Syria are now seasoned veterans. Syria was their live fire exercise.
They will be very useful in their new deployment and I expect that since Obama’s time is running short, these Russian forces will be used this spring and summer to their utmost effect, in Eastern Europe.
I am just going to leave this here!!
https://youtu.be/tzJMmtxgPPs
“Colonialista doesn’t see Assad as the devil.
And he isn’t a knee-jerk Obama supporter.
You see Obama’s policy as being in the U.S.A.’s interest?
Few people think that Obama does policy with the interest of the U.S.A. in mind, Colonialista is not one of them”
Does not compute.
How do you conclude I insinuate C is an Obamanator?
Or that Obama has been anything but murder for our allies?
I was replying to this
‘Please do your homework, this is two year old news. Or did you know it already but felt a need to fellate Pootin anyway? ”
The fiasco in the east started long before Obama,but the accusation of Colonialista as a”knee jerk Obama supporter”
WTF?
Which one of us has english as a second language tonight?
Did you check out the World affairs journal?
Is Obama STILL insisting that he never drew a RED LINE for Assad ? Is that the cornerstone of his Isis policy ?
And d’ya remember when Shrillary had the photo-op with some Russian functionary with her RESET button ? How’d that work out ? Ohhhh yeahhhh sooooo much better Russian relations than Bush and Condi Rice. And which genius on Team Hillary came up with the Staples button prop ? Huma ? It would have to be … these people Obama and Hillary and all their minions are functionally incompetent
Please accept my apology, John Robertson. I am wrong on my reading of your earlier post.
“Did you check out the World affairs journal?”
No I did not.
“He hoped Americans would forget or simply not care that he[Assad] is the Arab world’s largest state sponsor of international terrorism…”
~Michael J. Totten
Fact: The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the Arab World’s(indeed the entire world’s), largest state sponsor of international terrorism.
The pissant out maneuvered again.
What a loser.
Affirmative action in non-action
Incompetence personified.
We have our own Mr Selfie, fishing for a UN seat, whose ass will he have to kiss.
And them claim Harper had no gravitas.
Michael Totten is biased? Really? Who is not then? To me he is the single most reliable source of information, to you he is biased. Truly wonder who is not?
Yes the war in Syria started from the Arab Spring. But it started without koranimal fundamentalists. Assad freed them knowing that they would dominate the opposition, at least in the western news, and then useful idiots who see the world as “good vs bad” would declare Assad good. Brilliant move and the useful idiots did exactly what was expected of them. And they keep doing it.
“There is a stunning stupidity toward middle eastern affairs here in North America.”
Absolutely, could not agree more with that statement. Part of it comes from the western hard coded need to find good guys, and the absurd belief that there always is a solution. Hence the hosannas to Assad and Pootin.
Iraq was different than Syria and both were different than Egypt, Lybia was different too. And Tunisia were it all started and were the changes were relatively successful (hence forgotten) was different too.
In Egypt Obama punished an openly pro-western dictator who was liberalizing the economy and whose only meaningful opposition was the koranimal bros.
In Syria we are observing a proxy war that will continue for as long as Iran and Saudis will continue fighting for regional domination, which means it will continue for foreseeable future. But this was started as a popular uprising against a fascist dictator with decades long history of sponsoring terrorism in a manner more effective than anyone else. Ask Lebanese if you have any doubts. There is a reason Hezbollah are fighting alongside Syrian regulars and Pootinista SF. Yes the same Hezbollah that has been in the trenches for decades, that were responsible for the single greatest terrorist attacks prior to 911 are now fighting for your good guys and their favorite sugar daddy. This is different than incoherence of US involvement in Iraq or the purposeful hurting of western interests Ogabe engaged in Egypt.
Here is a question for you: what would be the single most dangerous outcome in the region? To me the answer is clear: nuclear armed Iran. Agreed? If yes, please extrapolate from there.
Toten’s take on Pootin’s move: http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/blog/michael-j-totten/putin-declares-victory-syria
The New World Order..
America will attack 7 countries in 5 years ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUCwCgthp_E
–
Obama used his Nobel Peace Prize Arab Springy speeches and his Hillary wrecking ball to destroy the last three.
Don’t forget what Hillary said: ‘She saved all the American Lives that would have been lost in Syria.’
She is a real warrior, dodging bullets in Bosnia, landing crippled choppers..
My Hero..
Don’t worry about all the Millions of Refugees that are now streaming into Europe, America, and Canada, they will keep you warm next winter.
Everyone thought Obama just wanted to destroy America ?? … Ha.
Go ahead, elect Hillary, so she can win a Nobel Peace Prize, and finish what Obama started..
You know, I just thought of something,
History and our grandchildren will call Obama the ‘Black Plague.’
1. Wishful thinking does not make it so.
It was simply assumed on 15 March 2011 that a Syrian revolution would see Assad quickly toppled and all the “moderate” and “democracy-minded” Syrians would soon be happily gathering at a Starbucks in Damascus to discuss transgender issues and climate change over low-fat lattes “just like we do”.
2. Any insurrection is a Pandora’s Box.
When you start a revolution or a civil war, you have no guarantee of where it will take you. Ask yourself as a Syrian: was trying to remove Assad worth wrecking the country and leaving a quarter million dead and 11 million refugees and displaced persons?
3. Nations act in their own national interests.
Sorry, but it’s not President Putin’s job to advance US interests. If the POTUS can’t or won’t do it, no one else is going to do it for him.
“he is the chicken that plays Tic-Tac-Toe at the Fair”
Gold, pure gold….