WarSclerotic

Syrian President Bashar Assad feels secure: Russian President Valdimir Putin continues to provide him with life insurance, U.S. President Barack Obama is busy with problems at home, and the Syrian rebels have revealed their ugly side to the world with videos of cannibalism and executions.

Three things happened Thursday almost simultaneously, and they are all very significant: the meeting between Obama and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Russian warships sailing for the Middle East, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s announcement that his country would deliver on its sale of sophisticated S-300 surface-to-air missiles to the Assad regime.

Erdogan crossed the Atlantic to pressure Obama into a more active role in Syria. The Turkish prime minister explained that if Obama would not intervene militarily, then at least a no-fly zone needed to be created, and if not over the entire country then at the very least over the Turkish-Syrian border. Erdogan proposed that Obama let NATO do the job, giving Obama further room to maneuver.

Obama, similar to his approach toward Iran, suggested Erdogan be patient and give diplomacy more time. Obama is neck deep in tax problems — the Republicans’ taxes, not his own. The IRS crackdown on his political rivals has forced the administration to do some house cleaning. The secret wiretaps on journalists and the terror attack in Benghazi are also very troubling for the president. It’s no wonder that Syria has been pushed by the wayside, even if Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman repeatedly claims that the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons.

Obama’s America wants to solve crises at the negotiating table. The U.N. General Assembly came to a decision on Syria. The decision has no teeth, but as long as Washington isn’t willing to move things forward we will continue to hear the same old lip service.

The meeting earlier this month between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Lavrov proved to the world that Washington agrees that any transition government in Syria would still include Assad.

Meanwhile, Russia announced on Thursday that a group of five warships from its Pacific fleet have entered the Mediterranean Sea to bolster a new regional taskforce, according to a fleet spokesman quoted on the state-owned news agency RIA Novosti. Novosti said the warships’ immediate destination was Limassol, on the island of Cyprus, where they will join Russia’s Mediterranean taskforce. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has spoken about intentions to station a permanent naval contingent in the region. Russia’s goal is to signal to the West that it is still protecting Assad. The ships’ final destination is the Port of Tartus in Syria. To complete the picture, the Russian fleet can wave the Soviet flag. We’re heading back to the future, Moscow’s version.

Russia feels so confident during the Obama era that it has no qualms about completing the S-300 missile transaction with Syria. Jerusalem tried convincing the Russians to refrain from making the deal, while at the same time Turkey tried pressuring Washington to act in Syria. But Turkey and Israel, both afflicted with the same Syrian problem, are watching as a Russian return to dominance in the region unfolds.

Assad should have been gone long ago. The atrocities committed in his country have rendered his rule morally illegitimate. But the Arab spring has taught us that as long as the military and armed terrorist thugs support the president, he can survive, with a little help from his friends in Hezbollah, Tehran and Moscow.

We need to remember that had it not been for NATO’s intervention in Libya, Moammar Gadhafi would still be in power, as would Abdullah Salah in Yemen without Saudi Arabia’s intervention.

But Syria is a more complex matter. Moscow continues to preserve Assad’s rule. To overpower the Russians, we apparently need Ronald Reagan, not Barack Obama.