So why exactly is Trump having a summit meeting with Putin ?

"This is a summit about appeasement and we should be terrified that Trump is going to sell out America and its allies.Any other President — Republican or Democrat — would use this summit to confront Russia for its on-going attack on our democracy, for its illegal occupation of Crimea and invasion of eastern Ukraine, for its efforts to assassinate people using chemical weapons in the U.K., and for its backing of [Syrian President Bashar al-]Assad. We should be confronting Russia and redrawing clear red lines, not trying to cut any deals because the only deal to be had is one where Russia agrees to completely change its behavior. That's not going to happen." - Max Bergmann of the Center for American Progress.

"If Trump really were a Russian asset, it's hard to think what else he could do to rupture the Western alliance, diminish U.S. influence, undercut democratic government and human rights, boost Russia's leverage in the Middle East and give Putin a green light to manipulate our elections with impunity." - Jennifer Rubin , WaPo.

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QuixoticSoul · 41-45, M

Russians have been outmaneuvering us on the geopolitical stage for years. Frankly, a detente wouldn't be such a bad idea. We've picked our battles with them quite poorly, and it's done absolutely nothing for us - or those we've backed.

I'm no fan of Trump, but we've tried to get tough on Russia for quite some time with only counterproductive results. This is overdue.

Northwest · M

@QuixoticSoul A few days ago, the assault on Dara'a began. The Russian air and artillery softened the anti-government positions, prior to the assault, and continue to provide cover.

So, what happened to our tough guy talk? This is the area we said we're not going to allow Assad/Hezbaollah into. It seems cleat to me now, that we folded on Syria, even before the summit is to take place.

Not that I think we should have fucked with Assad in the first place...

QuixoticSoul · 41-45, M

@Northwest We folded in Syria a long time ago, and that's been quite obvious for some time now. And yeah, that's probably for the best.

But this wasn't an advance on the SDF. Russia and Israel came to an agreement on this offensive, an Israeli intervention was far more likely than ours.

Northwest · M

@QuixoticSoul Yes, we did, but Trump made it sound as if we were in the driver seat, when we never were.

I read the local coverage, both in Arabic and Hebrew, and it's interesting to see the pro-Trump Arab/Israeli coverage, versus the non made up coverage from the left wing local media sources.

Israel was not given a choice on this one. Putin wanted to sideline Hezbalah, but he realized quick, that Assad cannot do without Hezballah remaining in the game. Assad had to promise that Hezballah will not be able to transfer missiles back to Lebanon. Both Putin and the US, realize that Hezballah is the most potent check against Sunni extremism.

RodionRomanovitch · 56-60, M

@QuixoticSoul Syria is the [b]only[/b] semi-legitimate reason Trump has given so far in wanting talks , but everybody knows it's game over in Syria now anyway . So I really am struggling to imagine just what else it is that Russia might be able to help the US with , unless of course it's a promise to not interfere again in elections which they said they didn't do in the first place ..... and this idiot in the WH seems to be the only person on planet earth who actually believes them.

I'm going for the Occam's Razor response and believe this summit is the inevitable quid pro quo and top of the list will be sanctions.

QuixoticSoul · 41-45, M

@RodionRomanovitch Yes, sanction relief will be our chief carrot in whatever discussions will happen. And certainly, what exactly we'll be looking to get from the Russians is the big question here.

With Bolton's visibility in all of this, I am concerned that this is groundwork for some kind of escalation with Iran. If that would come to pass, we'd really like the Russians to sit it out, and limit their S-300 deliveries.

RodionRomanovitch · 56-60, M

@QuixoticSoul As credible as it sounds , I really do hope you are wrong about Iran.

Northwest · M

@RodionRomanovitch John Boulton has never been right, not once, about foreign policy. He's pushing for an invasion of Iran, or an aggressive regime change move.

The trouble is, GOP voters, in general, have no clue, when it comes to foreign policy, so he gets away with the Iraq war, creating the refugee mess, and generally speaking, fucking up the world. What the GOP voters see: Obama did it.

This morning, Trump "called" the Saudi King, and ordered him to increase oil production by 2M barrels per day. Trump said that this is because of the turmoil in Iran and Venezuela. The GOP voters, will blame Iran and Venezuela. In reality, we placed sanctions against these countries, effectively blocking them from selling oil.

Iran is too strategic of an asset to Iran, and Putin is not going to play ball on this.