President Obama’s worldwide “Troop Talk” at Fort Meade on Sept. 11 was wide-ranging, covering foreign policy topics as well as reflections on the difficulty of being president and a family man simultaneously. But what stands out is what he said regarding Syria and the role Russia is currently playing in that tense situation. His remarks revealed an uncanny ability to stay on message no matter how much reality he has to ignore.
Obama told the troops that the United States and Russia have converging interests in Syria in fighting the Islamic State. True enough, as far as it goes. But it evades the more important problem that is the regime of Bashar al-Assad — defeating the Islamic State is only treating a symptom of that much bigger issue. Moreover, defeating what was once known in the White House as the “JV team” is not the core interest of the United States, just as it is not the core interest of Russia, and those core interests actually diverge.
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