War games most important event this week

Straight News:

In light of the news today of coming war games among Russia, China, Syria, and Iran, the meeting between President Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 summit in Mexico yesterday is the most important news event of the week.

President's Obama and Putin met yesterday for over two hours during the summit, in what was described by most news reports as contentious and containing only one subject: Syria.

Afterword, the two leaders took questions and issued a joint press release announcing the countries agreement that regime change in Syria was of the utmost importance to that countries citizens.

However, the mood was grim for Obama during the meeting with the press, and the two leaders "did not even look at each other," reported CBS news. The article can be seen here at The Weekly Standard.

And while the joint press release said the two countries agree on regime change, it was not reported exactly how the U.S. and Russia plan to carry out that change with involvement from the United Nations.

"It is clear," CBS news reported, "that President Obama did not get an agreement from president Putin."

News broken earlier today by Gabe Fisher , of The Times of Israel, has to be seen as disturbing sign to the Obama administration that the U.S. will not be able to dictate the circumstances surrounding the presumed ouster of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

The news report cites an unofficial news site out of Iran for information about the maneuvers planned for later this month, which is said to include over 90,000 troops, 400 aircraft, and 1,000 tanks.

My Take: That is quite a dance card the East has lined up


I'm tired of the U.S. playing nice with Russia, but I'm not sure the U.S. is in position to do anything about it anymore.

As a result of the announcement of the war games, I think the cards are on the table and this is the first clear intent of Russia and China, at least diplomatically, to tell the rest of the world that they plan on calling the shots in Syria.

I don't know if the U.S. told Israel to cool it a month ago when rhetoric for an attack on Iran was getting hot and heavy, but I think now those events are being seen by the east as a sign of weakness on the part of the U.S..

I think the East sees the Middle East as the last bastion of hope for world economies going forward and they will do whatever it takes to make sure they control at least a part of the oil rich region as a hedge against the fear of collapsing global markets.

And I fear this officially could mark the end of the U.S., militarily at least, as the worlds premier super power.

It is clear the U.S. was tested heavily in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the rest of the world sees that. They also see a country drowning in debt and a citizenry not even close to being interested in more defense spending or engaging in another major conflict.

It's clear that Britain, forever the U.S.'s major ally on world affairs, has an identity crisis on their hands with regard to military action in the Middle East. An ever increasing number of their population is Muslim, and while it is not yet an overwhelming majority by any means, it is clear the British government's attitude towards any U.S. call to action in the Middle East is surely to be tepid at best going forward.

Could this be one of the first major party's the U.S. goes to without a dance partner? I'd doubt it. When the music starts, America will escort someone to the floor, and it may well be Britain.

However, the fuss in the Middle East now begs the question: Does America know the right moves anymore?