China, then Russia, thumb noses at the US

What did I tell you. I wrote here many days back that Russia will get what it wants in Ukraine because Russian President Vladimir Putin has correctly read the United States and knew it was not going to go into a shooting war over Crimea.

Americans are tired of war. They have had enough of seeing healthy young American boys flying off to distant parts of the world and come back in wooden boxes as casualties of wars that were never meant for them to fight.

There was a time when the politics of the world were very clearly defined and thus easier to divide between good and evil. Today there are conflicts that are very clearly domestic but which the US, in line with its interventionist policies, always seems to see fit to meddle in.

The US has simply overextended itself to the point that notwithstanding its being the most powerful country in the world, weak points now spring up all over the overextension. The world has simply sprung too many belligerent villains for the world's policeman to handle effectively.

This is no longer the 1960s when the Kennedy doctrine of defending America called for stopping the enemy right at his own doorstep instead of waiting for him to cross over the lawn and start banging on the door with a bat.

In the 1960s, America had few enemies, making them readily identiable and predictable. When a door opened, America could tell if the enemy was going to rush out and attack or simply let out a cat. Today, America has lots of enemies, including some so-called friends. It simply can't keep track of all opening doors.

This has become a weakness and a liability born not of a deterioration of might but rather of might being overused, often uselessly. For instance, America cannot just meddle in every internal fight in the Middle East in the hope that the faction it sides with will in the end be its ally against terror.

The United States just does not get it. When factions fight, either side will always welcome any help it can get. That does not mean it will not abandon you in the end. This is what happens when America redefines the meaning of ally -- to no longer mean a true friend but rather an expedient companion to a common interest.

America looms large because of its might. As a result, any weakness looms just as big. But it is one thing to easily spot weakness, another to actually exploit it. Enter China, always patient but an unforgiving manipulator.

For years China waited patiently in the wings, like Fortinbras. It watched while America let out too much rope to hang itself. Then it moved, with the grace and wisdom of the ages rippling through its sinews. Would China have moved if it knew the US can squish it underfoot? Not a China man's chance it won't.

But it did, and most unfortunately at our expense. Poor Philippines, almost all its lollipops gone, its moist eyes glancing in the direction of an America discombobulated by the effrontery of China, an effrontery it can no longer temper and subdue.

America, of course, can still bonk China on the head. But that would be foolhardy. Behind every effrontery must be assumed a willingness to lose a few teeth. But is America imbued with similar willingness? Is it prepared to litter its landscape with another war memorial?

What makes China real scary is that, so far, it has backed its words with boots on the ground, or fins in the sea, as in the case of its bullying the Philippines. The US can only manage words. Enter another, this time Russia, ever leery of its ideological equal China.

Having seen how China has reduced a common enemy into a babbling complainer, Russia began itching for an opportunity to do the same. Ukraine propitiously danced into the scene. When Kiev burst into flames, Russia saw its chance. Putin drove into Crimea and bought real estate with effrontery of his own.