"‘A Credible Threat of Force’? What’s He Been Smoking?"

Melanie Phillips writes:

With the Syria deal, Obama has enabled Putin to sweep away US influence over the Middle East and make Putin himself the broker over Iran. ‘Credible US threat of force?’ Iran now has credible evidence –if any more were needed – that any such threats Obama may ever make towards it will be no more than the rustle of a paper tiger. The fate of the free world no longer rests with the US. It now rests with Putin. He and the mullahs in Iran, presented with the spectacle of the preening narcissist in the White House gazing in rapt adoration at his own reflection, are surely laughing fit to bust.

Update: Victor Davis Hanson observes:

Vladimir Putin controls the tempo of the crisis. He now issues new initiatives, now delays for consultations and retrospection — as he steps up profitable arms shipments to the Syrians and Iranians. In short, he is in the short-term “saving” Obama from himself, while in the long term insidiously destroying presidential credibility, influence, and respect by the sheer force of his cunning and audacity, as Obama in terms of foreign influence curls up into a veritable fetal position and wishes it would all just go away.