The Two Pit Bulls – And The Bone (#41)
The Russians cornered the United States, trapped it by its own words, and forced it into an ‘Agreement’ of sorts, under the United Nations banner, for Syria to hand over all its chemical weapons. It has been a real short-term geopolitical coup for Russia, Syria and their allies, and an embarrassing setback for the United States, where it itself set the diplomatic landmines and then stepped on every one of them, with Vladimir Putin gleefully shepherding it along. While the two global ‘powers’ (the ‘Pit Bulls’) sparred, Bashar al-Assad and his regime won a short term reprieve, but Syria (the ‘Bone’) ultimately lost in the super-power wrangling. The acute frustration of the American President and his senior most officials was plain for all to see in the past two weeks, as they desperately tried to push for a targeted military strike but kept getting thwarted by President Putin.