Putin Checkmates Obama

Russia Confounds US with Decisive Action

The week’s big failure was the administration’s, and it was of course Russia’s going full-bore into Syria. This wasn’t Vladimir Putin “enacting” anything. Even the Obama administration didn’t “act,” really. They scrambled, desperately, stung by surprise and humiliation.

Mr. Putin has moved to fill the void left by American inaction; he is attempting to displace the U.S. as the region’s dominant outside power. [...]

Mr. Putin’s move is worse than a snub to President Obama. It’s an insult, a cuffing. (WSJ via RCP)

Making President Obama's humiliating embarrassment extra crispy, rumor has it China could get involved.

“Moderate Syrian Rebels” is a Myth

Perhaps some are personally moderate, but they are like an independent or third-party politician trying to win an election. No affiliation, no funding stream, no support structure. That is why any rebels who may have been moderate at one time ran to Al Nusra, ISIS or one of the other Islamist organizations.

If Obama’s JV Team doesn't understand this, they are criminally incompetent. If they do, they are colossal liars or naïve dreamers who endanger the nation.

Russia is Saving Assad

Russia has entered the fray to shore up Bashar Assad’s regime. This after the hapless Obama met with Putin, and the hapless John Kerry brought his marbles to a 3D chess match with Putin’s foreign policy chess masters.

Russia will resupply and revitalize the Syrian military, and they will drive all the terrorists and rebels from Syrian territory, and that's a good thing. What happens after that is anyone’s guess.

Stalinists or Islamofascists:  Take you Choice

Assad is a Stalinist tyrant, but ISIS is an Islamofascist tyranny. Take your choice. While Obama and his fellow weak sisters in Europe dithered, Putin chose sides and rolled in.

Assad, like Saddam, is a secular dictator, but he's not dropping barrel bombs on innocent people for the hell of it.  He is fighting an Islamist insurgency, and that is what governments do to people who are trying to topple them.

The Assad regime’s cruelty is well-documented, but the cruelties were meted out to those trying to topple the regime. Go about your own business, and you are not a target. Christians and other religious minorities who refrained from anti-regime activities lived in peace and relative freedom under the Assad and Saddam Hussein regimes.  Indeed, everyone was safer and better off before we rolled in to "save" everyone.

Europe Bribed Khadaffi

Here's another cold, hard reality: European governments bribed Moammar Gaddaffi to snuff the cross-Mediterranean human trafficking. Obama’s incompetent team of fumblers, bumblers and international firebugs upset all that, after criticizing Bush’s Middle Eastern follies.

End Game? 

Who knows?  If they secure Syria, Russia could convince Assad to ride off into the sunset with a few billion in his pocket, guaranteeing him a dictator’s vacation exile in Bahrain or some remote, exotic location.  This would give Syria's secular regime a complete reset.  They implement some “reforms,” and put the world and regional jihadis on notice that they will deal harshly with any uprisings that threaten the peace and stability of the nation. Calm restored, displaced Syrians can return home.

Related Links:
Bloomberg: Putin Hailed as Humanity's Savior
RT: Russian Air Force Destroys ISIS Command Center