On The Defense

Remember that famous “Red Line” quote from President Obama? Since it happened more than a week ago, it has probably been pushed from the shallow American memory. Our brain can only remember so many things especially when our synapses are all wrapped around twitter messages and Dancing With The Stars.  For a quick foreign affairs refreshment, Vladimir Putin kicked President Obama’s diplomatic rear end and the ensuing cave in on any type of military operation in Syria effectively put Russia in the driver’s seat in the Middle East.

Now the United States is on the defensive. President Obama got embarrassed on the worldwide stage and has pulled back our influence and possibly our resolve to honor our commitments to our allies in the region.  STRATFOR reports that Iran is supposedly willing to scale back their enrichment of uranium to only 20% purity in return for a lifting of economic sanctions.  STRATFOR further reports that the United States is considering allowing Iran to continue uranium enrichment, a concession that is against the wishes of both Saudi Arabia and Israel. We appear to be abandoning the region to Russia and Iran.

The United States continually anoints the newest Mideast leader as the “moderate hope” for the region, that mantle now being thrown at Hassan Rouhani. This is the same Hassan Rouhani that was handpicked by the ruling mullahs and the same Rouhani who will meet with the leader of Hamas to repair strained relations. I guess in the Middle East, this is what moderates do.