Will it turn out that Kerry/Obama played 3D chess on Syria or that Putin pulled us back from war? [View all]

I'm not sure.

Though if the last decade and a half is any precedent, I suspect it is the latter.

When the US invaded Iraq to gain further hegemony over Middle East oil, that COULD have triggered World War III, if Russia and China saw it as one of the last dominoes that could lead to US business having a stranglehold on their economic growth through control of oil.

But they held back and let us screw ourselves rather than jumping in screwing themselves too.

Likewise, when we invaded countries on the eastern and western border of Iran, Afghanistan and Iraq, they could reasonably have taken that as a provocation, just as we would if Russia invaded Canada and Mexico.

But instead, they mostly held back.

It seems in this War on Terror era, it's like those two women who came to Solomon claiming the same baby, and Solomon proposed cutting it in half because the real mother would give the baby up rather than do that.

The baby is the world, and we and Russia are the mothers, but our government is the "mother" who wants the baby cut in half--as long as they get both halves.

But I would be glad to be proven wrong.

Which of the major explanations is more likely true?