"Secretary of State John Kerry's negotiations with the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov got off to a rocky start Thursday, with the Russian mocking Kerry right at the outset.
"They got off to a really bad start yesterday --- partly because of the Putin op-ed and partly because Kerry in the opening remarks spoke at length --- and I mean at length --- compared to the unprepared few welcoming comments from the Russian counterpart," NBC News foreign correspondent Andrea Mitchell said on "Morning Joe."
"And then the Russian minister said at the end, very tartly, 'Sometimes diplomacy demands silence."
Spitting teeth and bleeding profusely, Kerry then walked into a wall of unanticipated demands.
"Mitchell said the tone improved after a private dinner yesterday evening, but Syrian dictator Bashar Assad's decision to set another precondition for handing over his chemical weapons (he wants the United States to stop arming the rebels, in addition to holding off on a military strike on his regime) is complicating matters.
"No movement on the chemical side," Mitchell, who is reporting from Geneva, Switzerland, said while reporting on the state of the talks. "
Yes, there are additional demands. And next will be more conditions, and delays, and votes, until everyone loses interest and the result is Assad keeps all or most of his chemical weapons, American credibility is damaged severely, and no missiles ever fly to deter the bad guys - or in this case, the "less bad" guys.
Even I can see the game. The Russians must be immensely amused.
It's not all that hard to punk a punk.
ReplyDeleteThe Russians should be ashamed of themselves for humiliating such incompetent people... The USGOV could have found more competent people on any skid row in America.
I guess it's no accomplishment to punk an industrial strength idiot. I miss the Reagan years, when the Soviets trembled at his approach.
DeleteAs I've mentioned before, I would gladly trade Obama for Putin, not that it takes a lot of brains.:)
ReplyDeleteHe would definitely be highly competent, and would for sure represent, but the ex KGB man could have some totalitarian tendencies. He's not universally popular in Russia because of his heavy handed harassment of those who dissent from the party line.
DeleteBut again, that old question comes to mind: with the barbarians pouring over the wall, who would you want fighting by your side, Obama or Putin?
Putin is a lot more popular in Russia than the Western Press paints it. The West objects to his treatment of homosexuals, for example, but that treatment is not unpopular in Russia (unless you're a homosexual).
ReplyDelete