Is Obama Waking Up? -- By Walter Russell Mead, The American Interest

The difference so far between the United States and Russia in both Syria and Ukraine: The United States talks while Russia acts. Compare the headlines of two well-sourced front page New York Times stories from today:

“U.S. Scolds Russia as It Weighs Options on Syrian War“

and

“Russia to Release Loan Money for Ukraine, Lifting Leader“

This has not been working well for us. One can only hope that at some point President Obama decides to change course. It seems clear that the strong pressure inside the Administration against the President’s chosen policy mix continues and has gained force as it becomes less and less possible to pretend that the “partnership with Russia” is anything but a sham.

The pressure for a deep rethink of foreign policy in the White House must be mounting. According to this Wall Street Journal story, a rethink of sorts seems to be underway for Syria at least. We’ll see if after three years of delay and mixed signals a real change is in the cards. The dithering up to this point has succeeded in making all the alternatives look pretty bad, though we think that almost any change at this point would be for the better.

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