"Here's Why Obama Thinks His Foreign Policy Is Working"

[applegrove]

Here's Why Obama Thinks His Foreign Policy Is Working


by Brett LoGiurato at Business Insider

http://www.businessinsider.com/obama-foreign-policy-russia-syria-2014-3

"SNIP.....................................



Syria's pledges on destroying chemical weapons, however, have been "fraying" in recent weeks. The New York Times reported about two weeks ago that the Syrian government is seeking another delay for a looming deadline in the agreed upon timeline for the elimination of its chemical weapons stockpile. At this point, the original June 30 deadline for Syria to destroy all of its chemical weapons — mandated by a United Nations Security Council resolution — looks almost impossible.

It is unclear whether the U.N. and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons would approve of any extension, and how that would recalibrate the Obama administration's calculus. The administration has continued to assert that "all options are on the table" — including military action — with respect to Syria.

With Ukraine, too, the White House has argued that Obama is operating from a position of strength. On Sunday, it contrasted his position with that of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who it said had been forced to resort to "hard power" in Ukraine.

"This chapter has proven decisively that when it comes to soft power, the power of attraction, Vladimir Putin has no game," a senior Obama administration official said during a background briefing with reporters Sunday night. "So he’s left with hard power. And it’s a very dangerous game to play in Ukraine because the Ukrainian people are not going to stand for it, and nor is the international community."



....................................SNIP"

[applegrove]

1. Could be that hard power is all Putin had left. The people of the Ukraine

insisted on some relationship with the EU. The EU insisted on stopping corruption. That would hit the Oligarchs hard. And Putin knows when the F-35 starts flying it would be game over for him in any conventional war some day soon.

We just don't know.