A man unlike Putin

Shorter Bob Dreyfuss, "Russia Trumps Obama War Plan", The Nation, September 10, 2013:

Somewhat longer Bob Dreyfuss:

It’s tempting to enjoy the moment, that is, the humiliation of President Obama and the short-circuiting of his war push by a brilliant coup conducted by Vladimir Putin, that sly old dog and ju-jitsu expert, along with Russia’s ally, Syria. President Obama might as well not bother giving his Oval Office speech tonight, because the chances that Congress will approve Obama’s Authorization to Use Military Force are zero, and the possibility that the United States will go to war against Syria without congressional support are now less than zero.

But here’s the thing: the Russian proposal, now accepted by Syria, ought to be seized on by the White House enthusiastically, because it could open the door to, first, a political settlement of the war in Syria and then an accord with Iran.

It's tempting to laugh at an old paranoid pseudo-leftist (who has done some useful work, to be fair, since he got over his 20-year infatuation with Lyndon Larouche) with an adolescent crush on a murderer of journalists and all-round vulgar insult to Russian culture (or as Matt Drudge calls him "the leader of the Free World"), but now that Obama's strategy has clarified itself to the point where its glimmer can be seen even by someone who began his career believing in the drug-running exploits of Queen Elizabeth II, why bother?

Because of that irredeemably stupid last paragraph, that's why. Because it is now plain, if it wasn't when Dreyfuss wrote that, that the president engineered that Russian proposal, and that his "war push" has all along been a push for peace, and for an accord with Iran above all (as I have been trying to explain for weeks).

Image from The Trippy Hippie.

Speaking of Lyndon Larouche, I want to just record here that he's an outspoken supporter of Glenn Greenwald, just so you don't think those are all Republicans. On the subject of the game of chicken, see David Ignatius explaining how Kerry's "inadvertent remark" was actually part of a conversation between Russia and the US that has been going on for a year, and how Putin's "victory" over Obama was in fact Obama's granting him a way to look good while doing exactly what Obama has been asking him to do.