MilesFranklin November 5 2013 (Thanks, Kevin)
Two months ago Vladimir Putin played a game of chess that cooled the tempers from rising toward a global world war. The U.S. believed the game to be checkers which would be over after a double or triple jump. Fortunately President Obama decided that the board was set up with strange looking pieces and decided not to play the game. It looks however like Mr. Putin never stopped playing
Sec. of State Kerry visited both Egypt and Saudi Arabia over the weekend, he made almost no statement afterwards nor was there any sort of public communique. Sometimes “no news is good news” but not in this case. No statement means that no deal was struck nor was any wounds healed. Instead, in the background while Mr. Kerry was trying to smooth over diplomatic divides, Russia was negotiating a deal with Egypt to use and construct a naval port in the Suez Canal region.
This is important why you ask? First off, Russia was “thrown out” of Egypt back in 1972 so any deal now would be a reversal of their eviction. A port in the canal area will give them a stronghold over shipping. It would also show not only a “thaw” in relations but a genuine warming. This should not come as a surprise as the U.S. who once always did what we said, now cannot be counted on to either do or not do as we say. As I have said before, “trust” is the most important aspect when business is conducted and is exactly what we have been undermining willfully or not.