On to Geneva....

[exedir]

The test begins and it is going to take time, patience, a clear sense of objectives and knowing when to quit if nothing is going to happen as Secretary Kerry meets with the Soviet...er....Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov.

What we have here is a meeting of convenience, not necessarily conviction, as to what the United States and Russian want out of the Syrian "Red Line" crisis and the longevity of the Assad regime much less the access, use and control of the chemical weapons held by Syria. Clearly, what the Obama administration wants is an out of a self-made box, and Russia wants an in, an in into the international game of leverage and influence and to marginalize the United States as a world power.

Of course, many should only see this as the saving of the world from a greater, more dangerous crisis, whose consequences are almost apocalyptic as any event in the Cold War including the Cuba Missile Crisis of President Kennedy and Secretary Khrushchev in 1962. And of course, some would see this as a cynical game of politics, theirs and ours, as to the self-interests that are going on; the Obama administration from a debacle, a further debacle, in front from the ongoing and future challenges in congress and Putin to insulate his Sochi 2014 Winter Game from terrorist attacks.

Now as to the odds as to this all working out, they are not good. Not good in achieving the desired agreement that can pass in the UN Security Council, not good in being implemented and not good in obtaining the stated results. But, giving this, now that it is on the table and accepted as the light at the end of the tunnel, it has to be played out, certainly for days, probably for weeks. If months, however, Geneva becomes a moot exercise as the conditions on the ground in Syria will have changed not in the rebels favor, not in the US's favor and not in favor of the people of Syria who will experience more death and destruction from whoever will use violence to advance their causes and seek revenge.

Let's not forget that this has happened before, in Geneva. In 1935, the emperor of Ethiopia, Halie Selassie, came to the League of Nations to plead for their aid to stop Fascist Italy from invading his country and using poison gas on his people. The League chose to do,... nothing, as the then international community was feckless, if not ineffective, to combat dictators and tyranny, and the coming disaster of World War II.

[base2final]

What worries me is that we are expecting a leader who said he had no chemical weapons to now agree to turn over those weapons completely. All the while this is being proposed and negotiated by Putin who has been supplying weapons to Syria and we don't trust at all. Why would Putin and Assad agree to this? To stop us from bombing them? Obama already knows he has no support from congress or the people to do that. The only thing I can think of is that this will just stall the US while Assad keeps killing men, woman, and children, but as long as it's not with chemical weapons we're okay with it.

Now we have North Korea restarting a nuke plant and Iran moving closer to getting nukes. Maybe we should ask Putin to help us with thise countries too.

Does anyone know what our strategy is? What is our goal? What is today's game plan? This is a sorry case for leadership. 

[ProblemAgain]

what really worries you is obama is our president...

a sorry case for leadership? which particular leadership? i didn't see any other world leaders paying any attention to the situation and when the matter was brought up, most of the world seemed to be riding their bicycles backwards to get the f away from it. obama brought the matter to congress rather than be that perpetrator of crimes certain wings of the republican party keep attempting to portray. so perhaps you might criticize congress for failing to lead. you can't have it both ways cod....and just how far do you want us to get involved in syria? and where else should we be the policeman of the world? there is a long list of countries which treat their citizens like shit and where human life is highly expendable.....here's a recent numbering of the 25 most failed states....

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-25-most-failed-states-on-earth-2...

so which ones need us to fix them?  and if those don't, why syria? really does it matter that they kill their people with sarin rather than napalm or bullets?...and talk is cheap ...intervention is not

[base2final]

Putin is now paying attention and taking the lead.

[ProblemAgain]

that was not an answer to any of my questions to you

[LoveLife&Laughter]

Is anyone surprised that the hypocrites that have always compared Obama to Putin are now kissing his communist socialist arse LOL...?

[ProblemAgain]

that's a good definition of stress...whose ass do they want to kiss? the black mooslim socialist or the godless atheist commie ???

[LoveLife&Laughter]

There in such a hurry to dis Obama they don't think too long, do they?

[exedir]

Certainly, leadership is a question.  But it does require a leadership with a plan, if not Plan A, then a Plan B and etc.  

Leadership is not just in reacting to events but to put some vision, if not control over what is happening and as to what will happen.  Additionally, confidence and trust is also required to marshal the resources and implement the necessary action for the people and country.  So far, we seem a long way away from that as relates to this current crisis.

[ProblemAgain]

i already mentioned that after the wmd claims and the vote to invade iraq turned out to be false, there are few countries who will just accept an assurance from the us that such and such is so. in fact, if you notice, the clamor is for evidence and for evidence that leads to an inescapable guilt by the assad regime. while we may 'know' that it was the regime which used gas, actually proving it is another kettle of fish and there seems to be a definite lack of nations signing up to ride this bus without a roundtrip ticket.

business insider has also said that the economic sanctions against the assad regime ARE working. they just are not dramatic.

[Ioruach]

I rather like a comment by Thomas Friedman of the N.Y Times:  “Give Obama credit for standing up for an important principle in a chaotic region.  But also give the American people some credit.  They’re telling our leaders something important: It’s hard to keep facing down  Middle East Hitlers when there are no Churchills on the other side.”

Yes. Leadership from Western Nations is not exactly inspirational here.

[exedir]

Ok, so, what we got out of this is that they will agree to agree to meet to discuss a Geneva II sometime in the next few weeks starting with a date setting in New York at the UN, soon.

In the meantime Kerry will meet with Kofi Annan, the ex-UN secretary general and who was a special envoy to the Middle East and then quit due to lack of progress.  Then on to Jerusalem, to meet with Netanyahu about, one would guess, what are the Syrians really doing, much less the Russians, as the Israelis see it.  Then, well, then it is up in the air.....for Kerry as he has to report back to....and wait for the next meeting with Lavrov to be scheduled....