We’ve Been Played

The late Ukrainian violinist Mischa Elman is considered one of the greatest of all time, but he has nothing on Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has played the Obama administration better than any musician.

Washington is astounded at what happened over two days on the Syria front. First, there was a supposed faux pas on Monday in London by Secretary of State John Kerry, who said the only way Syria could avoid a military strike was to give up its chemical weapons. While the State Department was busy walking back his comment, Putin said it was a great idea and offered to facilitate the handover, a proposal to which Walid al-Moallem, the Syrian foreign minister, quickly agreed.

Then on Tuesday, things accelerated at warp speed. Al-Moallem said Syria was willing to become a party to the Chemical Weapons Convention, the international agreement banning the use of chemical weapons, which was the first admission his country possessed them. While the United Nations was preparing to hold one of its toothless “emergency meetings,” Putin then added a caveat: The United States and its allies (meaning Israel) would have to agree that in exchange they would pledge not to attack Syria. It was then announced that Secretary Kerry would meet before the end of the week with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Geneva to discuss Syria.

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