This colums was originally written for the Unz Review: http://www.unz.com/tsaker/week-twelve-of-the-russian-intervention-in-syria-zag/
In last week’s review of the Russian military intervention in Syria I wrote that Kerry had lost every single negotiation he ever had with the Russians and that he had a record of agreeing to A only to come back to the US and then declare non-A. This time again, the Americans did not change their modus operandi, except that it was Obama himself who declared, yet again, that Assad must go, resulting in some commentators speaking of a “White House Schizophrenia”. Others, however, notedthat this could be simply a case of face saving denials. Personally, I think that both of these explanations are correct.