The short answer — no. The longer answer is also no. And pretty much all of the points in between are no as well, for all the reasons CNN lists in this report. However, just the fact that we have arrived at the position where we have to ask that question means we’re not going to get much choice in it.
TNR’s Julia Ioffe offers the only realistic hope we have that Putin will deliver on what he proposes, which is … that we will have to all kiss his ring (or some other point on his person) from this point forward. That only happens if Putin succeeds, which will make the US look even more rash and reckless in its rush to intervene militarily in Syria. Putin has already won on that point, as Ioffe wrote this week and McClatchy notes today:
In one day, with one simply stated proposal, Russian President Vladimir Putin turned a losing position into a winning one.
