Krauthammer: Obama’s on ‘Thin Ground’ Lecturing Russia on ‘Quagmires’

RUSH TRANSCRIPT:
BAIER: "Also saying it's just the beginning of what's possible as far as deployment. I want to play President Obama asked about the Russians and specifically Vladimir Putin and what those air strikes are doing inside Syria. If that will change. 
[begin clip]
OBAMA: "Mr. Putin, I don't expect that you're going to see a 180 turn on their strategy. Over the next several weeks. So I don't think we should be under any illusions that somehow Russia starts hitting only ISIL targets. That's not happening now. It was never happening. It's not going to be happening in the next several weeks." 
[end clip]
BAIER: "So there." 
KRAUTHAMMER: "But he does say that eventually Putin will come to his senses and understand that as Obama has been saying, Obama understands the Russian national interests and Putin doesn't. And when the enlightenment arrives Putin will ultimately change his position and join us. For a guy who doesn't understand the American national interests, that's a remarkable statement. But then he actually added something and said, with the memory of Afghanistan fresh in his mind, Putin will understand he's in the quagmire. The Russians left Afghanistan 25 years ago. The people stuck in the quagmire today are Americans under Obama. He's been in office seven years, 76 percent of the combat deaths of Americans in Afghanistan has occurred under Obama and there is little doubt that our position in Afghanistan today is weaker than it was seven years ago when he came into office. 

"So when he's trying to instruct Putin on national interests and on quagmires, he's on rather thin ground. Just one point about the testimony today: The chairman of the joint chiefs was asked whether he considers the drivers of the oil trucks by ISIS, the ones who export it, as combatants, and he said no they're civilians, trying to feed their families. And that's why we actually dropped leaflets warning the drivers, three-quarters of an hour before any air strikes. This is a joke and it comes not from the Pentagon, it comes from the White House. This has not been a serious air war and all the promises -- that, oh yes, now we're going to get serious? -- are a joke as long as this president is commander-in-chief"