The humiliation of Obama as Putin swaggers on his Moscow dunghill

Published: 23:02 BST, 10 September 2013 | Updated: 01:35 BST, 12 October 2013

The 大統領? of the 部隊d 明言する／公表するs is 直面するing a 墓／厳粛／彫る／重大な 危機 of 信用 at home and abroad.

Whatever the 運命／宿命 of the 草案 決意／決議 on 化学製品 武器s that フラン has put before the UN 安全 会議, the Syrian 危機 has 損失d 尊敬（する）・点 for Barack Obama, probably irretrievably.?

いっそう少なく than a fortnight ago, David Cameron 苦しむd humiliation when he lost his ありふれたs 投票（する） after 需要・要求するing support for 軍の 活動／戦闘.

This 大統領／総裁などの地位 has touched a low point. Over the past five years, Barack Obama's lassitude and political ineptitude have ますます beco me 明らかな

Yet the spectacle of the leader of the U.S. 存在 rudderless and outplayed at every turn by Vladimir Putin is a vastly more serious 事柄.

Russia’s brutish 大統領，／社長 has 開始する，打ち上げるd a 外交の 率先 which leaves the U.S. wrong-footed and 潜在的に 孤立するd.

Fareed Zakaria, one of the country’s most 影響力のある commentators, calls the Washington 行政’s 扱うing of Syria ‘a 事例／患者 熟考する／考慮する in how not to do 外交政策’.

証拠不十分

This 大統領／総裁などの地位 has touched a low point. Over the past five years, Obama’s lassitude and political ineptitude have ますます become 明らかな.

His rhetoric remains as impressive as ever, but his 行為／行う of office is hallmarked by 証拠不十分 and 不決断.

This 事柄s to us all much more than Cameron’s bungling, because the U.S. is the most important nation on earth.

For all its shortcomings, it 代表するs most of the values 僕主主義s 心にいだく, just as Putin’s Russia 具体的に表現するs many of the evils from which they recoil.

So what has gone wrong???

Russia's brutish 大統領，／社長, Vladimir Putin, has 開始する，打ち上げるd a 外交の 率先 which leaves the U.S. wrong-footed and 潜在的に 孤立するd

From the start of the Syrian civil war, Obama has used words with a carelessness we 推定する／予想する from マスコミ commentators, but not from a 大統領，／社長.

Just over two years ago, he 宣言するd that 大統領 Assad must leave office. He saw little 危険 in 説 this, because 支援する then, in 2011, the Syrian 独裁者’s 政権 indeed seemed to be 崩壊するing 急速な／放蕩な.?

It was still tottering last year, when Obama made an even more unwise 発言／述べる: he said that any use of 違法な 化学製品 武器s by Assad would 代表する the crossing of a red line, which would 軍隊 the West to 行為／法令／行動する.

Worse ― as a friend of 地雷 in the U.S. 明言する／公表する Department 発言／述べるd this week ― the White House failed to use the months that followed to 列／漕ぐ／騒動 支援する, to make the 脅し of 軍の 活動／戦闘 いっそう少なく explicit.

A 広報担当者 could easily have told the 圧力（をかける） 軍団: ‘What the 大統領，／社長 really meant was?.?.?.’. But no one did. And so the world was left with a （疑いを）晴らす 約束 that, if the Assad 政権 used 化学製品 武器s, the U.S. would start 狙撃.

But in his heart, its 大統領，／社長 did not want to do so. While the British boy scouts in 負かす／撃墜するing Street 勧めるd on Washington with arguments about its moral 責任／義務 to 急落（する），激減（する） into Syria, the White House was unresponsive.

Obama 手配中の，お尋ね者 to get his country out of wars, not into them.

Moreover, the U.S. 軍の, like its British 相当するものs, are implacably 敵意を持った to 介入, because they cannot identify （疑いを）晴らす and attainable 客観的なs. General ツバメ Dempsey, chairman of the 共同の 長，指導者s of Staff, has said as much 公然と.

Putin 提案するs that Assad's 化学製品 武器s should be placed under international 支配（する）／統制する

But last month （機の）カム a new and shocking 行為／法令／行動する by the Assad 政権.

Some 1,400 people were killed in a Damascus 郊外, and most of us 受託する a high probability that this was done with sarin gas.

Where, now, was the U.S. 大統領，／社長’s かかわり合い to 行為／法令／行動する if Assad ‘crossed the red line’?

Obama 許すd himself to be 説得するd by his 助言者s that he must 配達する at least a gesture strike in Syria, to 保存する America’s 評判 for meaning what it says.

In the weeks since, however, a 黒人／ボイコット farce has 広げるd.

投票s show most Americans as 敵意を持った to 介入 as are the British people ― and indeed the French.

Washington has no coherent 戦略, beyond punishing Assad by lobbing 巡航する ミサイルs at his 推定するd 化学製品 戦争 設立s.

While no one likes Assad, the 対立 is a 群衆 of 安定性のない 派閥s 支配するd by Al Qaeda sympathisers.

The only question that should 事柄 for the leaders of the West is whether they have a 軍の 選択 that 申し込む／申し出s the prospect of making things better for the Syrian people.

Most ordinary Americans have decided that they do not, and their 見解（をとる） is 広範囲にわたって 株d in 議会.

This was how 事柄s stoo d before last 週末, when the 大統領 …に出席するd the G20 首脳会議 in St Petersburg.

He hoped to use the occasion to 決起大会／結集させる support for a 刑罰の strike on Assad ― but conspicuously failed.

一方／合間, 中国, India, Brazil and other 明言する／公表するs made it plain that they 拒絶する the American 事例／患者.

Even the ローマ法王 has sent a message, 勧めるing Obama not to 行為／法令／行動する.

It has become painfully 明らかな that, while America （人命などを）奪う，主張するs 活動／戦闘 against Syria would be 実証するd by international 法律, no major international 団体／死体 agrees.

For his part, the U.S. 国務長官 John Kerry was running his own charm 不快な／攻撃 ― and faring even worse. His default position is to put his foot in his mouth.

欠如（する）ing

He is woefully inarticulate, and when he does 持つ／拘留する 前へ／外へ, it is often from a different song-sheet to the 大統領，／社長. His gangling 人物／姿／数字 is wholly 欠如（する）ing in international 信用性.

Then Putin 配達するd his bombshell: a 提案 that Assad’s 化学製品 武器s should be placed under international 支配（する）／統制する ― to make Western 空気／公表する strikes redundant.

The U.S. leadership was thrown into new 混乱. Kerry 解任するd the notion as incredible.

Obama, however, saw no choice but to give the ロシアの 率先 a chance ― to dance to Putin’s tune.

American 巡航する strikes, and a 連邦議会の 投票（する） to authorise them (which everyone knows that Obama might lose), were suddenly put on 持つ／拘留する.

The French 提案するd a UN 安全 会議 決意／決議, designed to 軍隊 the ロシアのs to make their 計画（する） meani ngful, which Britain and the U.S. are supporting, but which the ロシアの 外務大臣 has already 公然と非難するd as ‘容認できない’.??

For sure, there will now be 長引いた 延期する and haggling. Putin has bought time for his （弁護士の）依頼人s in Damascus.

But the longer the dithering goes on, the more limp and unconvincing any possible U.S. strike will seem.

It is ありそうもない Washington now has any 現実主義の 選択 that will bring 負かす／撃墜する the Assad 政権. The civil war will go on, probably ending in a messy partition of Syria.

But even if ― as I believe ― the West and Britain have no attainable 客観的なs in Syria, assuredly we have a 決定的な 利益／興味 in the 当局 of the 部隊d 明言する／公表するs.

It is a sorry spectacle today to see the U.S. 大統領 減ずるd to 混乱, while Putin crows on his Moscow dunghill.

流血／虐殺

Like David Cameron, Obama has only himself to 非難する for the shocking mess he has drifted into, against all his own instincts.

After the 流血／虐殺 and 失敗s of the past １０年間, most of his people have become far humbler and more 用心深い about throwing their 負わせる across the world.

A Washington 外交政策 guru whom I 尊敬（する）・点 emailed me this week: ‘When I hear Obama or Kerry 激怒（する） with indignation, I can’t help feeling that it sounds hollow.

‘Americans started a war in Iraq that killed tens of thousands of Iraqis. We 拷問d people.

‘And now we 開始する，打ち上げる drones around the globe ― 武器s that give, to a very small number of people, the 力／強力にする of 裁判官, 陪審／陪審員団 and hangman all at once.

‘These 行為／法令／行動するs have eroded our 当局 to pronounce on moral 問題／発行するs in 外務.’

My friend is 権利, I 恐れる.

Many of us will be much relieved if the Western 力／強力にするs do not 介入する 軍事的に in Syria.

But the 拒絶する／低下する in the moral stature of the 部隊d 明言する／公表するs, and in 尊敬（する）・点 for its 大統領，／社長 の中で his own people and abroad, is just 原因（となる） for 悔いる to us all.