Vladimir Putin’s Syrian gambit has demonstrated once again the Russian president’s knack for outfoxing President Obama.
Again and again, Russia threatens and the president folds. The administration even reacted to news of the Russian deployment in Syria with another concession — ending an 18-month suspension of military-to-military relations with Russia, which dated back to Russia’s initial aggression against Ukraine. The purpose of the concession, administration spokesmen explained, was to “de-conflict” American and Russian operations in Syria.
Four days later, hounded by accusations that restoration of military relations had rewarded Russian adventurism, the Obama administration backtracked. The Pentagon announced that it would not “de-conflict” until the Russians entered into dialogue about political alternatives to Bashar al-Assad. But Putin, correctly sensing a bluff, did not budge. When the US and Russian presidents met in the city on Monday, Obama capitulated for a second time, consenting to the original de-confliction regimen.
Obama’s vacillation and cowering spurred Putin to trample the United States still further. On Wednesday, at the US embassy in Baghdad, a Russian general warned of imminent Russian airstrikes in Syria and told the United States to vacate Syrian airspace within the hour.
As the Russian air campaign began, Secretary of State John Kerry issued a vague warning, of the sort that the Obama administration has frequently toted as a fig leaf for inaction. “We would have grave concerns should Russia strike areas where ISIL [ISIS] and al Qaeda-affiliated targets are not operating,” Kerry announced.
Putin proceeded to concentrate the preliminary airstrikes against non-ISIS rebels, some of which had received support from the CIA. Whatever grave concerns may have been aroused, the White House took no action in response, other than to acknowledge that it would be taking no action. A senior US official stated that although the Russian air campaign “shows they are not there to go after ISIL,” the United States would not interfere.
This soiling of America’s dignity and reputation bears unfortunate similarities to Obama’s prior dealings with Syria and Russia. After Assad’s chemical attack at Ghouta in August 2013, administration officials claimed that Obama was preparing retaliation for this breach of his “red line” against chemical weapons, with Secretary of State Kerry intoning, “President Obama believes there must be accountability for those who would use the world’s most heinous weapons.”
But when the time of decision arrived, Obama shrank from the use of force, claiming absurdly, “I did not set a red line, the world set a red line.”
In August 2014, when Russian tanks and troops flooded Ukraine to abet separatists, US ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power declared, “In the face of this threat, the cost of inaction is unacceptable.”
Overheard at the Pentagon: ‘Right now, we are Putin’s prison bitch’
- Reporter Nancy Youssef tweeted
But, sure enough, Obama followed up with words of inaction. “We are not taking military action to solve the Ukrainian problem,” he stated.
“Overheard at the Pentagon: ‘Right now, we are Putin’s prison bitch,’ ” tweeted Daily Beast correspondent Nancy Youssef last week. Sadly, the comparison is deserved.
Bullies thrive on fear and weakness. Those who offer tough talk but back away when the bully bumps them in the chest will end up no better off than those who cower from the beginning.
The truly weak may have little choice but to bow and scrape before the Putins of the world. For the world’s greatest power, however, it is a senseless disgrace.
Mark Moyar is a Visiting Scholar at the Foreign Policy Initiative and the author of “Strategic Failure: How President Obama’s Drone Warfare, Defense Cuts, and Military Amateurism Have Imperiled America.”