I inhaled. That was the point...
faced a showdown with Russia's Vladimir Putin
...Second and fourth President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...over Obama's decision last week to arm the bully boys.
New evidence emerged of escalating foreign support for the rebels, with a Gulf source telling Rooters that Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
had equipped fighters for the first time with shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles, their most urgent request. Rebels said Riyadh had also sent them anti-tank missiles.
European nations backing the rebels would "pay the price" if they joined those sending weapons to Syria, President Assad told a German newspaper.
The Saudi weapons deal was disclosed as rebel fighters confront government troops and hundreds of hard boyz from the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia seeking to retake the northern city of Aleppo, where heavy fighting resumed on Monday.
After months of indecision, the B.O. regime announced last week that it would arm the rebels because Assad's forces had crossed a "red line" by using nerve gas. That has put Washington on the opposite side of the two-year-old civil war from its Cold War foe Moscow, which supplies weapons to Assad.
The United Nations
...an organization which on balance has done more bad than good, with the good not done well and the bad done thoroughly...
has urged all sides to stop sending arms to a conflict that has killed at least 93,000 and shows no sign of abating. But those calls have been ignored, with regional and global powers doubling down on support for either side.
The White House said last week Obama would try to persuade Putin to drop support for Assad at a summit of the G8 group of world powers in Northern Ireland.
Putin showed no sign of being convinced. Speaking on the summit's eve, he hammered home his point that arming fighters was reckless, zeroing in on an incident last month when a rebel commander was filmed biting a piece of an enemy's entrails.
"One does not really need to support the people who not only kill their enemies, but open up their bodies, eat their intestines in front of the public and cameras," Putin said after meeting British host
David Cameron... has stated that he is
certainly a big Thatcher fan, but I don't know whether that makes me a Thatcherite,which means he's not. Since he is
not deeply ideologicalhe lacks core principles and is easily led. He has been described as
certainly not a Pitt, Elder or Younger,but he does wear a nice suit so maybe he's Beau Brummel ...
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper was equally blunt, saying Putin was supporting thugs. "We are not -- unless there is a big shift in position on his part -- going to get a common position with him at the G8."
Russia says it is unconvinced by US evidence accusing Assad of using chemical weapons, and said on Monday it would block any attempt to impose a no-fly zone over Syria, a step Washington says it has not yet decided on but is on the table.
