Humiliated by Putin

Spooked because their constituents strongly oppose intervening in Syria's civil war and alarmed by President Barack Obama's inept handling of the crisis, members of Congress were about to vote down a resolution authorizing military strikes.

Mr. Obama was spared a humiliating defeat when Russian President Vladimir Putin tossed him a lifeline. Like a trout dazzled by a fisherman's lure, our president snapped up the bait.

"Putin openly despises your president," Russian political analyst Andrei A. Piontovsky told The New York Times. So why would he help Mr. Obama out of a jam?

The Russian leader was following sage advice offered by a Chinese general 2,500 years ago.

"Do not press a desperate foe too hard," advises Sun Tzu in "The Art of War." "Build your opponent a golden bridge to retreat across." If you know your enemy and you know yourself, you'll win all your battles, Sun Tzu said.

As Con Coughlin, defense editor of the London Telegraph, wrote, Mr. Putin knows that "Mr. Obama will grab any excuse he can find to avoid military action against Damascus."

And Mr. Putin knows that because he's so vain, Mr. Obama is more likely to act to protect his own reputation than America's. So when another stupid thing Secretary of State John Kerry said provided an opening, the Russians pounced.

In response to a reporter's question, Mr. Kerry said Syrian dictator Bashar Assad could avert a U.S. military strike -- which earlier in the day he said would be an "unbelievably small, limited kind of effort" -- if his regime gave up its chemical weapons.

This was a "major goof," one official told CNN. He "clearly went off script."

What a swell idea, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. We'll ask our ally to turn his chemical weapons over to an international body. Mr. Assad readily agreed.

Via Real Clear Politics

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