Putin, Good Guy?

What a strange twist to have Mr. Putin as the voice of morality and reason.

This from a  man who with his unfettered support for the brutality of Mr. Assad, has (if the New York Times report of yesterday is accurate) blocked all past efforts to move in the direction now being considered.

This from a man who in his own homeland has treated any dissent as a disease to be punished into extinction, yet has taken in Mr. Snowden  under the guise that he has to protect him and his first amendment freedoms.

This from a man who has made a mockery of the process of the United Nations and has essentially rendered it impotent on the issue of Syria until now, when he can use this body to validate him with its stamp of approval.

And yet much of what Mr. Putin says in his op-ed mirrors the sentiments expressed by a majority of our war weary nation as the debate on a seemingly unsolvable problem has raged.

Mr. Putin, the protector of a beleaguered war torn Syria. Mr Putin, by his last minute intervention able to stop an egregious mistake from happening and prevent the inevitable spillover effect through much of the middle East.

This has the distinct feel of being inside-out, upside down, with Mr. Obama cast in the role of unreasonable war monger, a Nobel peace prize winner who has lost his way and overstepped his bounds.

Mr. Obama is boxed in, unable to secure the assent of Congress, of his usual allies abroad, of the United Nations. Mr. Putin has now arrived as his savior, our savior, the horseman in the white hat.

It is all more than a little confusing and unsettling.