President Obama's favorite television shows include "House of Cards" and "Mad Men." One can imagine that when his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin wants to kick back and relax, all he will need to do is turn on the nightly news and watch the latest reports from the NATO Summit in Wales.
Putin can listen as NATO leaders roll out the latest iteration of their bold responses to his annexation of Crimea and his invasion of Ukraine, reports GN based on CNN.
Imagine how he'll be tickled as NATO leaders fall all over themselves trying to find ways to refer to his sending Russian troops into a neighboring country without actually calling it an invasion.
Imagine him, no doubt lying shirtless on a polar bear skin that he single-handedly separated from its original owner, laughing as NATO unveils the stockpile of strong adjectives that have been its principle weapons in containing the Kremlin's aggression.
Then, as NATO's Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen rolls out what they call in the political biz "the big deliverable" of the summit -- a Readiness Action Plan that will make 4,000 troops available within two days of a Russian incursion into a member state -- one can only hope that Kremlin doctors are standing by, because Putin could injure himself laughing.
First of all, NATO members are already supposed to be guaranteed protection by virtue of their very membership. One would imagine that each had in mind something considerably more robust and more rapid than this middling unit the alliance has dreamed up.
This is little more than a tepid response gesture, a sign not of strength, but one that shows how the world's most powerful alliance is now utterly adrift.
There will be many speeches suggesting that NATO is re-energized by Putin's threat. There will be lots of self-congratulations on the effectiveness of economic sanctions levied against the Russians. There will be talk of new mega-sanctions that will really keep them in line. But Putin will sit there watching, perhaps munching on pieces of deep fried Siberian tiger that he killed with his bare hands, as he contemplates that everything he wanted he got, and that all he wants he can get -- at a low, low price.
