This grim juncture

The UN General Assembly is winding down. The major figures have given their speeches. Some highlights of those include Raul Castro's insistence that the embargo be lifted before Cuba will truly warm to post-America, as well as Abbas's proclamation that the Palestinian Authority no longer considers itself bound by the Oslo Accord. The pow-wow on "sustainable development" was predictably an orgy of clamoring for redistribution and guilt-mongering.

Then there was the sidelines meeting between Vladimir Putin and the Most Equal Comrade. It was clear, from the photographs, not to mention reports of the substance of their exchange, that it did nothing to shift the dynamic between them: Putin's contempt for the MEC's mom-jeans approach to foreign policy, and the MEC's delusion-based irritation that Putin just doesn't get what a visionary the MEC is (seasoned with some beta-male insecurity in his presence).

And since then, the facts on the ground have become ever more stark:

To think a Russian three-star general delivered a message to the U.S. Ambassador in Baghdad Iraq — yep, a senior Russian general is in Iraq — to cease flight operations in Syria. One hour later the Russians began bombing in Syria — but not ISIS positions. They bombed the city of Homs where Syrian rebels fighting against Bashar Assad are based. And here was the response from the Obama administration. White House spokesperson Josh “Not So” Earnest said the Russians were operating from a position of weakness. 

Dude, when a general tells our ambassador to “bug off,” that’s not what I call a weak statement…and how did that Russian general get to Baghdad in he first place? U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter held a press conference and spent more time talking about the defense budget and women in combat units. Now what message does that send to Vladimir Putin when our own SecDef does everything to evade the issue?

As I said in my most recent podcast, the world stage is shping up to be comprised of two types of people: those who are utterly serious, utterly focused on a strategic aim, and those who are utterly unserious, even if they suffer under the delusion that they are serious.

Vladimire Putin is damn serious. He has his eye on a short-term goal, an intermediate-term goal, and a long-term goal:

In the short term, rescue the failing regime of Russia’s ally, Syria’s blood-drenched President Bashar al-Assad. And in doing so, eliminate all opposition groups except ISIS, leaving the United States, Europe and the world with the stark choice of “Assad or Islamic State?”

In the mid-term, create a fait accompli, irreversible circumstances, on the ground in the Middle East (and in Ukraine) that will defeat the next US president even before he takes office.

Expect a lot more aggression and violence from Putin between now and Inauguration Day 2017. Obama’s delusional worldview — that of a narrow-shouldered, bleeding-heart undergraduate at a second-rate university — is a gift to Putin that keeps on giving. (In almost seven years in office, Obama still hasn’t grasped that words don’t stop bullets.)

In the longer term, Putin intends to re-establish Russia’s grandeur and glory from the apogee of the czars — and to go still further by dominating the Middle East and its energy resources.

Putin has bet on the Shia world against the Sunni Muslims and is well along in the process of building a wall of allies from Tehran to Tripoli. Already, Russia has a renewed presence and influence in the Middle East after a four-decade absence.

If - or is it when? - the next world war ignites, the blame will fall squarely on the shoulders of the Most Equal Comrade, Secretary Global Test, and the entire delusional nomenkatura currently ruling post-America. This most certainly includes SecDef Ashton Carter, who pathetically takes Russia at its word that it shares post-America's aim of defeating ISIS.

If we pull through this knotty little episode without a twilight-of-the-gods-level conflagration, it will be a squeaker.