Smelling weakness - today's edition

Since a sizable number of Syrians were inspired by neighboring developments in the Arab Spring of 2011 to mount resistance to Assad's Baathist regime, post-American policy toward that country has been an incoherent mess of bravado, backtracking and general fecklessness. Among the results have been the rise of ISIS, the current mass migration into Europe (and the attendant backlash in Poland and Slovakia and reversal of open-door policy in Germany), and the current stymieing by Turkey of post-American efforts, such as they are, to address ISIS.

But surely one of the most significant results has been the clear demonstration of which world power is shaping events there (Russia) and which one is not (post-America).

For instance, it mattered not that Bulgaria nixed the idea of Russian flights over its territory. Russia found willing countries elsewhere:

 Russia is using an air corridor over Iraq and Iranto fly military equipment and personnel to a new air hub in Syria, openly defying American efforts to block the shipments and significantly increasing tensions with Washington.
American officials disclosed Sunday that at least seven giant Russian Condor transport planes had taken off from a base in southern Russia during the past week to ferry equipment to Syria, all passing through Iranian and Iraqi airspace.
Their destination was an airfield south of Latakia, Syria, which could become the most significant new Russian military foothold in the Middle East in decades, American officials said.Continue reading the main story

The Obama administration initially hoped it had hampered the Russian effort to move military equipment and personnel into Syria when Bulgaria, a NATO member, announced it would close its airspace to the flights. But Russia quickly began channeling its flights over Iraq and Iran, which Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, said on Sunday would continue despite American objections.
“There were military supplies, they are ongoing, and they will continue,” Mr. Lavrov was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies. “They are inevitably accompanied by Russian specialists, who help to adjust the equipment, to train Syrian personnel how to use this weaponry.”

P

And Russia is sending in offensive weapons:

Russia's military build-up in Syria has grown to include the shipment of a half-dozen highly sophisticated battle tanks -- and more troops -- a defense official told Fox News, in what the source called the "first clear sign of offensive weapons arriving in Syria." 

The Pentagon has now tracked a total of 15 Russian Antonov-124 Condor flights into Syria, reflecting a steady stream of military cargo into Syria. According to the latest intelligence, this also includes the arrival of two more Russian cargo ships, containing the tanks. 

Up to this point, the official said, the Russian cargo and weapons that have been delivered to Syria could be viewed as defensive in nature. The arrival of tanks cannot be viewed this way. 

The official said that Russian offensive operations could launch from Bassel Al-Assad International Airport "very soon." 

The massive Condor flights carrying all kinds of supplies now arrive twice a day through Iran and Iraq into Bassel Al-Assad International Airport outside the port city of Latakia. The cargo is for Russian soldiers, not Syrian government forces, but is seen as a build-up to aid Bashar Assad's embattled regime. 

The defense official, briefed on the latest satellite photos of the Syrian coastline, said: "This is the largest deployment of Russian forces outside the former Soviet Union since the collapse of the USSR." 

You think about the Most Equal Comrade's snide remark about the 1980s calling and wanting their foreign policy back during one of the 2012 debates, when Mitt Romney said that Russia posed the greatest overall strategic threat to the US. You think about the MEC's hot-mic remark to Medvedev that he'd have "greater flexibility" after the election. You think about Secretary of State Hillionaire handing the above-quoted Mr. Lavrov a "reset" button that didn't even actually say "reset."

Then you think about all that in the larger context of the 2009 Cairo speech, the MEC accepting the Noam Chomsky book from Chavez while cameras from around the world were clicking. The entire MEC regime sitting on its hands as a groundswell of resistance formed inside Iran in response to the 2009 rigged election there. The botching of Libya policy, from supporting the toppling of Ghaddafi to the Benghazi debacle to the spread of ISIS there. To the disastrous Iran deal.

Planned decline may strike our overlords as cute, but there's no way they can claim the worldwide danger level is anything but off the charts.