"passed through the Straits of Gibraltar"

Blame England for opening south, YJ.

Watch for that Jugg...Turkey's had enough of this shit...they want refuges *the fuck out* of their country...

Whether we should go in or not (I say not), we really can't now. Putin has boxed Obama into a corner and made it look like a lifeline. Now America cannot intervene at all, since the phantom talks for Syria to give up its chemical weapons preclude an attack due to John Kerry's big mouth and the presence of a Russian warship in Tartus makes the potential for something going wrong and involving conflict with Russia too high to hazard.

The United States has been completely out-foxed here. It's a historic embarrassment, despite the good policy result of not getting directly involved in Syria. Obama has lost the world's respect. America's word is worthless. It's unbelievable how badly and how thoroughly the administration has messed all this up. January 2017 can't come soon enough, no matter which party wins.

Yes....Putin has AGAIN made Obama looking like a fucking retard. Notice how we don't talk anymore about our NSA boy that went to be Putin's bitch? lol

Putin's playing Diplomacy, Obama's playing tic-tac-toe. And losing.

But there were always Russian warships in the Med...? I mean, they keep a sizable fleet there. So this is basically SOP.

+1 for the Wargames reference, Invictus.

Yes, Russia keeps a fleet in the Med, and their ally...SYRIA...has a PORT (read SC) they like...but now they have a big ass thorny missile cruiser capable of sinking a US carrier should Obama choose to fuck with their ally.

Sabre rattling? Yes....but Putin would love to kick some US ass if we gave him a reason to...

Yeah, but this is like Putin bringing only one gun to the International Gun Jugglers' Convention. The missile cruiser is dangerous, but it's not really of any consequence compared to what's already there.

Also, haha, I love how it's referred to as an SC, because that's basically what Russia wants it for, +1

Now let's not get too crazy here. This isn't an epic fuckup or a huge diplomatic coup. It's a minor embarrassment. Still, nobody seems to be liking old Obama much right now.

"+1 for the Wargames reference, Invictus."

I don't think Invictus is old enough to've seen Wargames.

How about a game of global thermonuclear war?

In one sense how we got to the position that the US isn't now going to launch an attack is irrelevant. I think it was obvious that world opinion, Congress's opinion and US citizen's opinion was against a strike and even the president didn't really want to strike.

The more important matter is the standing of the UN. I think countries have either got to accept UN authority or disband the UN. If we want to maintain our own vetoes we must respect Russia and china's veto, otherwise we are handing them carte Blanche to do what they want in the future. This argument that US, France and UK can act outside of UN when UN is paralysed is absurd. The whole point of a veto system is that the status quo (no foreign intervention into a sovereign state's affairs) can be maintained unless there is unnaminity. Stepping outside that system risks undermining the US's veto. Unless I'm missing something the CW accord most countries signed up to does not in itself authorise force against anyone breaking the convention.