The Big Summit With The Big Brains

     The naively delusional leaders of the "international community" like Barack Obama want to believe so badly, and want just as badly for others to believe, in their power to persuade using diplomacy, that they are willing to give large chunks of Ukraine to Vladimir Putin for what they term as "peace." The thing that the self-deluded Western "leaders" fail to understand is that diplomacy only works when rendered from a position of strength. At the conclusion of this crisis, Mr. Putin will enjoy a "diplomatic solution" which gives him most of what he wants, and the "international community" will claim diplomacy as the medium that paved the road to peace.
     In the beginning, when Vladimir Putin was laying claim to Crimea, Western leaders, including Barack Obama, said his naked aggression would not stand. So they clothed it in the diplomatic term of "containment," thinking they could stop him from laying claim to any more of that country. Of course, Mr. Putin had designs on the industrialized Eastern part of Ukraine, and employed small groups of highly skilled Russian-trained specialists to foment rebellion in the Russian-speaking population of the East.
     The limp-wristed diplomats from the European Union, United States, and Ukraine met in Geneva just a couple of months ago, and returned to their home countries in Chamberlain-esque fashion saying they had secured peace with nothing more than the use of their big diplomatic brains. None of the Geneva agreement was implemented, but it matters little because the "Big Brains" had the right intentions, even if their follow-thru was sorely lacking.
     Yesterday, Vladimir Putin met with members of the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe, or some such feckless group. The peace-at-all-costs addicts are all laying back enjoying the high generated from the opiate of diplomacy, while Mr. Putin, in the mean time, is speaking peace from one side of his mouth, and speaking European domination from the other. Apropos of the "international community's" Pollyanna geopolitical posture is the reporting by media sources that gave the impression that Vladimir Putin had pulled his troops back from the Ukrainian border as a result of the meeting. Truth is, Mr. Putin denied the troops were recently there at all, a big difference from what was reported.    
     From what I read, the only "concession" the Russian president proffered was that he "encouraged" Russian separatists in the East to postpone their referendum vote to become part of the Russian Federation. Other than that mostly symbolic gesture by Vladimir Putin, which may or may not be heeded by the rebels, and his statement about the Ukrainian elections on the 25th of this month being "a step in the right direction," nothing has changed much from the big summit with the "Big Brains."     
     Any sensible person outside the "international community's" diplomatic core can surmise that Mr. Putin would not have put this much effort into Ukraine without ultimately gaining more control in that war-torn country. Do the "Big Brains" of the "international community" really think that old Vlad is going to walk away with nothing after deploying up to 50,000 troops to his border with Ukraine, supplying well-trained Russian special forces inside Ukraine to stoke the fires of rebellion, and threatening the economic stability of Europe using a possible disruption of Russian oil? It is any one's guess how this crisis is going to end, but one thing is for sure, no matter what happens, the "Big Brains" will claim victory because that is just what "Big Brains" do.