:lamo
Russia pulled this
exact same trick with us with Iran and Obama fell for it then too.
Russia isn't even complying with its' commitments to destroy its' OWN chemical weapons, the likelihood of Assad keeping ahold of a portion of his stockpile while giving the Russians a portion approaches 100%, and we look like feckless weak-horses to friend and foe alike across the Middle East and indeed the Globe. Assad went from being the next guy to join Hitler on the ash heap of history to a partner for peace in the matter of a couple of weeks because it turned out that bombing him would have been unpopular, and so Obama backed down.
But why in the world
would they toe the line? Putin just succeeded in staring down Obama in his own back yard, and Assad is fully aware that domestic political considerations will keep Obama from being willing to launch an actual strike against him, no matter
what he does. Both of them know that Obama will now spend the next couple of months trying desperately to pivot to other subjects, and leave them free to do whatever they want in Syria. I'm a big fan of finding silver linings, but there is
nothing about this that is win, dude.