This is where so many people make a mistake, CW. Russia has sabotaged Iran’s nuke crap for years and years in ways that have made it impossible for Iran to nuke up. All the while Russia has APPEARED to be their best friend, they have been quietly making sure Iran’s nuke program never got off the ground. Iran’s planes can’t fly. Their missiles sputter out and they have had to photoshop their tests which were laughable.
The same with Syria. Remember, the Russians had only JUST given Syria a brand new ground to air defense system including state of the art radar, but when Israel bombed their nuke facility, it failed utterly and completely. They never saw Israel coming, but Israel knew exactly where to strike. That was on purpose.
Russia and Israel have much more of a strategic alliance than you might imagine. Recall also the so-called hijacking of a Russian ship full of weapons heading for Iran by the Russians themselves that was later shown to be in tandem with Israel, though no one ever confirmed it.
The Russians were already paid for those weapons, but it would NOT have been a good thing for them to have reached Iran, so Russia doubledealt them while appearing to try and deliver.
If you go back some years, you will see that things like this have happened many times.
Like when Iran tried to test their centrifuges and nothing worked. Iran has been lying through their teeth about how many centrifuges they have and how many are actually working.
Contrary to popular opinion, Putin is not insane. He knows these people cannot be trusted and he knows if they had the capability, they would not hesitate to use it.
Russia has been willing to play this game while GW Bush was in office. Good cop, bad cop. Putin and Bush worked hand in glove to derail the G10 crap a few years ago, but Putin does not trust obama in any way, shape, or form.
OTOH, the US has been arming muslim countries in the region to the teeth since obama took office. It is sending weapons systems to Yemen for heavens sake. We are preparing to turn Afghanistan over to the Taliban. Iraq is reverting.
obama is a very, very dangerous man. He was willing to stand by and allow Iran nuke up. Russia was not and DID not.
PING