Here's the Flop.

 By Donna Cole


 After last Friday's titanic diplomatic disaster at the United Nations by the Obama administration, their failure to pass a strong U.N. resolution against Syria because Russia and China vetoed it, it seems they spent the weekend mulling over what to do.



 On Monday, the President recalled all our Syrian embassy staff, thus leaving any American citizens still in Syria nowhere to turn. Obama also decided to send U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice out to do some story spinning about what went wrong on CNN. The Hill.com has this report on Rice's appearance, "Amb. Rice says Russia, China will 'come to regret' vetoing UN Syria resolution". This is taken from The Hill.com report;

"Rice said the two countries (China and Russia) "sent mixed signals" regarding their positions leading up to the vote, and said the vote was held in part to confront Russia's "delaying tactics."

 Let's use some poker analogies to explain Rice's diplomatic strategy here, leave aside the U.N. runs a crooked casino with rigged games. Rice saw what she said were "mixed signals", she thought they were bluffing. I think the Russians and the Chinese would say those "mixed signals" were no bluff, they were telling Rice in the coded language of international diplomacy to fold in order to avoid the public embarrassment of loosing her pile of chips.



 Then Rice said they, the U.N. Security Council because of her pushing it, held the vote to "confront Russia" in what I think was very weak play to shame Russia and China into voting her way. She called them and guess what ? Russia and China laid their cards on the table, Rice had nothing and they raked in her chips. Those chips Rice lost are the clout she used to convince other nations, like India, to go along with her on the vote.



 Now, do you think nations like India will make this play a second time with Rice just to be made to look like fools again ? Of course not. Rice has a fundamental misunderstanding of the importance for these nations to save face in the international game. They do not like walking away from the table being taken for suckers. Here, Rice continues to show her lousy card play, her total misreading of what is happening in the game;

"Russia and China will, I think, come to regret this action," Rice continued. "They have by their actions by their veto dramatically increased the risk of greater violence, and you've seen manifestations of that."

 Why will they regret this ? The answer is they won't. The Russians and Chinese had to balance two things here. The interest they have in Syria verses how much of a price they will pay for supporting those interests. They have no fear of, which equals respect for, President Obama. They see no consequence or punishment for supporting Syria coming from America. They certainly don't fear the UN itself in any way.



 In other words, they had nothing to loose. It is Amb. Rice's job to explain to them what they stand to loose, in that job she failed because she had nothing and that is why she lost the poker game. She actually believed the Russians and the Chinese would vote her way on simple humanitarian grounds. When in the history of the U.N. have the Russians or the Chinese ever supported anything on humanitarian grounds alone ? Never.



 Russia and China have always had to get something out of it, either a reward of some kind or to avoid some sort of punishment. Amb. Rice had no upside to offer or no downside threaten, you cannot embarrass, shame or humiliate them into doing anything. That is why she should have known that she had a junk hand and folded. One must also remember that in the Russian and Chinese world view, Iran and Syria are two issues tied together and they cannot easily be separated.



 They do not like how we are treating Iran and it should come as no surprise then that they would reject our attitude toward Syria. They have tolerated our treatment of Iran because there is a reward, no major disruptions in oil prices. The punishment would be a war causing major disruptions in oil prices. No such rewards or punishments like this come with Syria. You should also add in that the Russians and Chinese wanted to show they can only be bullied off the table so many times before going for a big play. It's that face saving thing I spoke about before.



 Either Amb. Rice did not understand any of this or totally misunderstood the signals the Russians and Chinese were sending or some of both.  Regardless of which it was, the result is she didn't fold and continued on in the game like a sucker. Believe it or not, they enjoy winning just as much as we do and they are laughing their heads off in Moscow and Beijing right now at what an easy mark Rice was. She cost America a big pile of chips, for nothing.



 Perhaps the answer to Rice's poor play has a simpler answer. I admit, I'm not a good poker player and this episode proves Susan Rice isn't much of one either. She obviously does not have the skills to play the international diplomacy game. At best, she should be a third tier deputy to someone actually qualified to sit at the poker table. Rice is too incompetent to hold the position of U.N. ambassador.



 This should not really be a surprise though, it is yet another example of President Obama pushing incompetent boobs, for political reasons and not for any real qualifications, into high positions. All this incompetence starts with the President, who fancies himself a card shark too.