Here is a little reminder for U.S. President Barack Obama: 52 years ago, Presidents John Fitzgerald Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev met in Vienna. The Russian was under the impression that the American was a "lightweight" and humiliated him. This erroneous assumption brought the world to the brink of nuclear war over the Soviets' intentions to deploy ballistic missiles in Cuba.
Russia is always on the lookout for its adversaries' weaknesses, and never misses an opportunity to pounce. Russian President Vladimir Putin is that kind of leader.
This is not a whim on Russia's part. When U.S. President Ronald Reagan embraced the Star Wars strategic defense initiative, this pushed Moscow out of its joint world leader position and left its economy and technology behind in the dust. Star Wars propelled the collapse of the communist regime in Moscow, and Russia never forgot, and never forgave.
Putin is an aggressive, ambitious, determined and cynical leader, who pays little attention to public opinion in his country. Obama or Jimmy Carter would have never crushed the Chechen rebels with the same brutality as Putin did. While Obama stressed that he was appalled by Syrian President Bashar Assad's use of chemical weapons, Putin did not as much as mumble that it was "horrible" or a "crime against humanity," calmly blaming the rebels for the attack instead.
Putin does not feel obligated by the international community's criteria. Several days ago, Russia officially protested the ballistic missile test Israel conducted in the Mediterranean Sea last week, citing "the sensitive security situation" in the region, and then turned around and announced that it was planning to help Iran build a new nuclear reactor and make good on its promise to deliver S-300 anti-aircraft batteries to Tehran.
The events surrounding Syria's chemical weapons' stockpile are surprisingly similar to the U.S.-Russian face-off in the days of Kennedy and Khrushchev, when they locked horns over missiles stationed in Cuba and Turkey, as well as to the struggle between East and West over the Berlin Wall and the support Russia gave Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser in building the Aswan Dam, pushing the U.S. aside.
The same countries are facing off again now. Putin is bolstering his position with the nations making up the axis of evil and the U.S. is perceived as weak. It is highly likely that the American intelligence services have already detected the traces of conservative Arab regimes which are secretly pursuing negotiations with Russia. This is a dangerous development.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry knows that. He has said that the U.S. and Russia say one thing but mean another, and that the focus is on Syria but the ramifications will affect the Iranian nuclear program. President Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon have said so as well, but while Peres has faith in American deterrence, Netanyahu and Ya'alon remain mum.
We can only hope that Obama is able to disarm Syria of its chemical weapons, which is a lengthy process under the best of circumstances, without firing a single Tomahawk missile. But the American president, who has lost precious time in favor of testing the credibility of his deterrence against Iran and may have even crossed the point of no return, may soon find himself fooled by the Russians. After all, they are experts on the subject.
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