The joke of the week came, of course, from Putin, "It's boring, girls." It came with a reference to the authors, Ilf and Petrov. In the book, Ostap Bender visited a local chess club in Vasyuki, he offered the fans of the ancient Indian game to take on a brighter name, for example, "The Red Endgame". Because "Chess Club" sounded rather unoriginal and sad. "It's boring, girls". There were no girls in the "Chess Club", by the way. But the saying, which has multiple meanings, worked anyway.
Obviously, Putin wasn't addressing girls during Tuesday's press conference, which took place after his meeting with the Italian President. In a comparison, Putin said that America's behavior in Syria is the same as it was at the beginning of the war in Iraq. All this reminds me of the events of 2003, when the US representative in the UN Security Council showed a supposed chemical weapon, found in Iraq.
After that a military campaign began in Iraq, which resulted in the destruction of the country, an increased terrorist threat, and the appearance of ISIS in the world. No more, no less. The same thing is happening now, and once again their partners are nodding their heads along with them. It reminds me of the work of some of our great writers, Ilf and Petrov. I just want to say, "It's boring, girls!" We've seen it all before already. But Putin isn't just joking. He's laughing at America's incompetent actions, since they're so predictable, and ineffectually repetitive. He emphasizes the fact that the result is far from funny. War, massacres and an increase in terrorism.
As for the domestic political effect in the US, the Russian President asks not to give in to illusions. As in, if the White House thinks that with its impulsive missile launches it can solve its domestic issues, it is sadly mistaken. It's just that the political enemies of the current president didn't go anywhere. And if anything happens, it will all be blamed on him. I have no doubts about that.
Therefore, by ordering a missile strike on Syria, Trump put himself in a vulnerable position. Once it becomes clear, that he had no viable reasons for a surprise missile attack on another country, how will he justify his actions? He was scared? With the fact that he got emotional, when his daughter Ivanka showed him a few questionable photos? Trump himself, who was always against fake news, suddenly decided to drink their Kool-Aid and press the red button? And all that without having accomplished any military objective. All the more utterly pathetic.
Putin also laughs at the insincerity of the NATO countries, that just nod along like some bobbleheads. Look, just recently we witnessed missile strikes on Syria by the US. And how did their NATO allies react? They nod along like bobbleheads. They don't analyze what's happening. Where is the proof that the Syrian army used chemical weapons? There is no proof. What about the violation of international law? Now that's an obvious fact. Without approval from the UN Security Council, they initiated a strike on a sovereign country. And in spite of this obvious violation of international law, everyone eagerly accepts it, just nodding along in support.
To Putin, the head-nodding NATO countries, who justify US war crimes, are reminiscent of bobbleheads. It seems that Trump now finds NATO rather endearing. And not obsolete anymore. I said it's obsolete. It's no longer obsolete. Anyway, in order to remain respectable, the US must justify their missile launch on Syria, even if in hindsight. It'll be tough. It seem like an international investigation is in order to clear up the issue of the so-called chemical attack by Assad. But in reality, nobody is in a hurry to launch this investigation. Instead, a series of new fibs appear.
For example, from some former Syrian general, who was silent for a long time, now claims that Assad hid a part of his chemical arsenal. There's no proof, which works in Trump's favor. The US obviously doesn't need a serious investigation. Because it will put them in an embarrassing situation. But the US is already in an embarrassing situation, because they are openly trying to prevent an actual international investigation.
First, the US isn't ready to include Russians and Syrians in the group of experts, who would be the other independent experts. Second, Washington keeps pressuring the OPCW, the UN's Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. As a result, the OPCW announced they're off for an Easter break, like there's no rush at all. Third, the members of the fake investigation supervised by the Americans and the British, are working, try not to laugh — remotely. They refuse to visit the Shaykhun area, where the Syrian chemical bombs allegedly struck. They also refuse to visit Syria's Shayrat Air Base.
Supposedly, it's where the poison was loaded, apparently, to be used on missions by Syrian attack aircraft. So some experts are sitting somewhere in Turkey and give the Americans the results they want from labs not certified by the OPCW. And everything is classified. Now what kind of moron will actually fall for all of this? Probably feeling not too sure about the whole thing, someone came to Moscow for the first time on Tuesday, the new US Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson. He arrived for negotiations with the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergey Lavrov.
On Wednesday night they both had a meeting with President Putin. And after that, a previously announced press conference was on the itinerary. Let's talk more about that. Let's take a closer look at our guest. My impression was that Tillerson sat with such a look on his face, as if the world has done him wrong. I might be wrong, but Tillerson may as well have given one-syllable answers. He didn't bother with reasoning, the sharing of America's plans for the future, or any historical references whatsoever. Can you imagine the mood at the mandatory post-game conferences of the coaches of the losing soccer teams?
Even though Tillerson didn't play that part, he certainly looked it, like an athlete after his worst performance of the season. Like his feelings were hurt. Either way, the first negotiations with the current US administration, represented by Tillerson, finally happened. And thank God. I'm sure everyone profited from this.
Putin and Lavrov got a chance to size their partner up a bit, the same goes for Tillerson, who might have actually learned something. A history lesson — now he can relate America's latest actions, such as trying to take down Bashar Al-Assad, to similar events of the past and how that all worked out. It's odd, but turns out Washington didn't even think of that. Lavrov literally had to give them a lecture.
Today, we talked about what we have in common, historically, but Rex said that he's a man of the times, and that he prefers not to dig through history, but to deal with today's issues. However, the way the world works is — if we don't learn our lessons from the past, then we won't be able to succeed in the present. And I'd like to remind you of those situations, when a group of countries, mostly from the West, NATO countries, were completely obsessed with neutralizing one dictator or another. That is, the removal of an "authoritarian totalitarian leader".
For example, in order to take down the president of what was Yugoslavia, Slobodan Milošević, NATO started a war in the heart of Europe in 1999, which was a serious violation of the UN Charter, an egregious breach of the Helsinki Final Act by OSCE. They bombed the TV center, the residential areas, even the Chinese Embassy was attacked. They bombed bridges and passenger trains. That went on for almost 3 months. Another example — another dictator, Saddam Hussein. He was hung after an invasion.
Since then, only Tony Blair, I think, publicly admitted that it was all fake. All the reasons for invading Iraq were fake. I believe everybody knows where Iraq is now. Then there was Muammar Gaddafi. Also... It was stated that there was no room for this dictator in his own country. And that democracy must prevail there. We all know what's happening with Libya, too.
The state of Libya is rather questionable now. So experiments of this nature, based on the obsession to take down a certain dictator, a "totalitarian authoritarian leader," don't end very well, as we all know already. I don't know any positive examples when a dictator was taken down and everything just got better afterwards. Makes sense to me. But will they find the history lesson helpful? We'll see by their actions.
