Vladimir Putin, Leader of the Free World

Asia Times ^ | November 18, 2015 | David P. Goldman, Spengler

[Trumpinator]

Vladimir Putin, Leader of the Free World

By David P. Goldman on November 18, 2015 in AT Top Writers, David P. Goldman, Spengler

If Mikhail Bulgakov had come back to life and written a Levantine sequel to The Master and Margarita, he could not have devised a scenario more lurid than what we now observe in Syria. Russian President Vladimir Putin is now the leader of the Free World against Islamist terrorism, directing the efforts of France and Germany and setting terms for American involvement. Reeling from last week’s massacre in Paris, France lacks both the backbone and the brute force to avenge itself against ISIS, but in alliance with Russia it will make a more than symbolic contribution.

In 2008 I endorsed Putin for the American presidency, in jest, of course. Now he is leading America’s president by the nose and directing the anti-terror efforts of France and Germany. No-one could have anticipated Putin’s sudden ascent to global leadership during the past several weeks. Russia is in the position of a a vulture fund, buying the distressed assets of the Western alliance for pennies on the dollar. Faced with an American president who will not fight, and his European allies whose military capacity has shrunk to near insignificance, the Russian Federation seized the helm with the deployment of a mere three dozen war planes and an expeditionary force of 5,000 men. One searches in vain through diplomatic history to find another case where so much was done with so little. As an American, I feel a deep humiliation at this turn of events, assuaged only slightly by Schadenfreude at the even deeper humiliation of America’s foreign policy establishment.

[piasa]

Thanks... I find it really weird that people so easily forgot the polonium assassination of Litvenenko and keep cheering on the assassin.

[AdmSmith]

I anticipate that if you talk to your friends they will tell you that they have nurtured a provokatsiya they no longer can control.

http://freerepublic.com/perl/post?id=3360535,23

[Trumpinator]

Thanks... I find it really weird that people so easily forgot the polonium assassination of Litvenenko and keep cheering on the assassin.

Firstly, Litvenenko was a terrorist convert to Islam and the world is better off with him glowing in the ground and secondly, he probably self ingested the polonium so he can die a martyr.

[TexasCajun]

But what I'm not interested in doing is posing or pursuing some notion of American leadership or America winning, or whatever other slogans they come up with that has no relationship to what is actually going to work to protect the American people, and to protect people in the region who are getting killed, and to protect our allies and people like France. I'm too busy for that.

[AndyJackson]

I feel a deep humiliation at this turn of events, assuaged only slightly by Schadenfreude at the even deeper humiliation of America's foreign policy establishment.

"Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it." - Mark Twain

[mac_truck]

Why should the death of a turncoat Russian spy in 2006 make one bit of difference to the rooting interest of American conservatives in the Syrian civil war today?

[boycott]

Yep. Russia is fighting TERRORISTS. We’ve done nothing since Hussein Obama has been in office.

And, honestly, I don’t put a lot of stock in our intelligence community anymore. I haven’t since former CIA director, George Tenet, told W Bush that WMDs were a “slam dunk” in Iraq. After we went in, the CIA never commented again. They led us there but then left the scene. Our intelligence community now is VERY POLITICAL. They like bigger government because it means their jobs. They need the funding.

[AdmSmith]

Well, Russia is producing terrorists, but I agree with you that WH could be functioning better.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/09/09/exclusive-50-spies-say-isis-intelligence-was-cooked.html

[bunkerhill7]

Russians rush in where fools fear to tread.

[AdmSmith]

Tu22M3 bombing in Syria

https://twitter.com/mod_russia/status/667299425669111809

[Jim Robinson]

Dang. As Obama and his democrat marxist/fascist Judeo-Christian-hating policies take effect in America, Russia becomes the leading defender of God, freedom and good vs evil? What a disgraceful fall.

[AdmSmith]

As you can see in the video above, the Backfire is dropping unguided bobs causing a lot of destruction. No precision bombing of ISIS/Daesh, just producing more homeless refugees leaving Syria for other countries. But, perhaps that is part of the strategy?

[mac_truck]

Why should the death of a turncoat Russian spy in 2006 make one bit of difference to the rooting interest of American conservatives in the Syrian civil war today?

tick, tick, tick...was this question too difficult for you to answer?