Steve Chapman on Putin's Illusory Triumph
Bungling is an inherent feature of American foreign policy. Even with the best of intentions, our presidents miss warning signs, overreact to minor threats, fail to dissuade other governments from doing things we oppose and wade into situations that blow up in our faces. When our presidents take action, we are fully aware they may not know what they're doing. By contrast, when foreign leaders take action, we assume they are brilliant strategists who never set a foot wrong. But, writes Steve Chapman, if Russia's President Vladimir Putin were a foreign policy grandmaster, he wouldn't have pushed Ukrainians so far that they toppled the government he was propping up.
