Surely, this reset will pay off in the United Nations Security Council Syria debate over a resolution condemning Assad and calling for him to step down:
Apart from Russia and China, the other 13 Security Council members voted in favor of the resolution, which would have said that the council "fully supports" the Arab League plan.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Saturday it had not been possible to work constructively with Russia ahead of the vote, even though military intervention in Syria - fiercely opposed by Moscow - had been absolutely ruled out.
"I thought that there might be some ways to bridge, even at this last moment, a few of the concerns that the Russians had. I offered to work in a constructive manner to do so. That has not been possible," she told reporters at the Munich Security Conference.
Wait. What?
The Russians won't work constructively with us?
Have our embassies abroad failed to advertise the fact that the cowboy Bush has been back on his ranch in Texas for over three years now?
UPDATE: And even more reset! We're going forward with the Obama missile defense plan in Europe but the Russians don't like it:
Russian Sergey Lavrov told delegates the U.S.-led plan "rings alarm bells" and suggested it risks seriously damaging relations with Moscow
Remember how President Obama cancelled the Bush plan because the Russians didn't like it? The Bush system would have protected Europe from Iranian missiles and had the capability of shooting down Iranian missiles heading for the eastern United States. The Russians claimed that the small force of anti-missiles could have chased their polar routed missiles heading for the United States. So we cancelled the planned deployment in Poland (and the Czech Republic)--on the anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939 after the Germans had already invaded.
We replaced the Bush system with a shorter range system that can be put in place quicker, require more assets to provide the same coverage in Europe, and can't protect the United States. But it would address the Russian concerns and demonstrate our commitment to working with Russia and cement a reset Russia that will work with us.
Apparently not.
No. Russia insists that it wants the ability to nuke Europe without the hassle of losing a few to a thin anti-missile defense.
I'm getting sick of the Russians. They could have joined the West after tossing out the Communist Party. But no, they ignore a rising China who would love to regain their territories lost in the "unequal" treaties that gave Russia their Far East while selling arms to China useful for fighting the United States Navy. Instead of facing the real threat, they prattle on about a NATO threat to Russia from countries that treat their militaries as an employment program and struggle to have any deployable military forces with reduced spending that will continue for years to come.
If China decides to regain some of their lost land in Russia, I wouldn't lift a finger to help Russia.
