"The Great Game" continues...

"The Great Game" continues...

and, this .... "The Great Game": the term was coined by British intelligence officer Arthur Connolly and popularized by Rudyard Kipling.   Regarding Vladimir Putin bringing Russia into our (otherwise non-existent) "War on ISIS", a friend wrote yesterday: Putin will defeat ISIS. The American rules of engagement are don't shoot unless they are shooting at you. The Russian rules of engagement will be: have a shot of vodka and kill everything in front of you.   Today, with the news that Russian forces (after warning U.S. forces to vacate Syrian airspace -- a warning apparently unchallenged and readily complied-with by the Obama regime) have bombed not ISIS but U.S.-armed Syrian "moderates" who oppose Syrian strongman (and Russian client) Bashar al-Assad, Obama and Kerry just may have learned a basic lesson: Unless you're Bobby-Fucking-Fischer, don't try to play chess against a Russian. Then again, it may be even more complex than that. A case can be made that (as stated by Lee Smith of the Hudson Institute):  "...Obama’s underlying goal in Syria is the same as Putin’s—to protect Assad. That aligns Washington with Moscow—and with Iran, as it happens—and pits all against Israel, which sees the Iranian axis as an existential threat. Well, as critics of the U.S.-Israel relationship are quick to note, Israeli and American interests often diverge. That’s certainly the case here, with the Obama administration tying American interests to a confederacy of despots, terrorists, and mass murderers."                                                                                                             The Stu and Skoonj Show Reminds me of a story, maybe apocryphal: A lad comes home from college and informs his parents that he's leaving school and will travel to the Syria to join ISIS.  His mother, startled at first, recovers and  plunges a steak knife into his eye.