Remember that red line that Obama chalked into the sand concerning Syria? You know, the one that was so Twizzler bendy that Assad waltzed over it? Well, Assad isn’t the only one that thought Obama’s stompy-foot declaration was full of hot air. Just days after an awkwardly “cordial” meeting at the United Nations, a certain Russian President is once again schooling this Administration in the art of aggression – and its not pretty.

By now we’ve all seen the news of Russia sending planes over Syria to target and take out ISIS compounds and its fighters.

I’m sure I’m not the only one of our readers who’ve thought this was all a little too good to be true. Sure enough, the other shoe is cannonballing toward us at a high rate of speed. First we have reports of the U.S. being ordered to stand down … BY Russia.

The development came after Pentagon officials, in a development first reported by Fox News, brushed aside an official request, or “demarche,” from Russia to clear air space over northern Syria, where Moscow said it intended to conduct airstrikes against ISIS on behalf of Assad, according to sources who spoke to Fox News. The request was made in a heated discussion between a Russian three-star general and U.S. officials at the American Embassy in Baghdad, sources said.

“If you have forces in the area we request they leave,” said the general, who used the word “please” in the contentious encounter.

Keep in mind that this was a RUSSIAN General wandering around Iraq, and he just took it upon himself to order – ORDER another country to stand down with only an hour’s notice!! Believe me, I’m not the only one who finds the news of Russian military hanging out in Iraq extremely worrisome (terrifying actually).  Especially since it looks like Iraq is gearing up to throw the U.S. under the bus, with Russia all to happy to help.

BREAKING: Iraqi PM Abadi says would welcome Russian airstrikes in Iraq, expresses disappointment with U.S.-led coalition – FR24

— BNO News (@BNONews) October 1, 2015

#BREAKING Russia ready to consider air strikes in Iraq if Baghdad asks: senior diplomat

— AFP news agency (@AFP) October 1, 2015

Next comes the news that the targets weren’t ISIS after all. Nope. Instead the targets were CIA-backed rebels. Yes, you read that correctly, instead of laying waste to the evil that is ISIS, Russia went after Syrian rebels who’ve been trained by our people.

Sen. John McCain said Thursday that he has confirmed that some of Russian airstrikes in Syria were aimed not at ISIS, but instead at CIA-backed fighters taking on the Assad regime.

“Their initial strikes were against the individuals and the groups that have been funded and trained by our CIA, in a credible flaunting of any kind of cooperation or effort to conceal what (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s priority is — and that is, of course, to prop up (Syrian President) Bashar Assad,” McCain, R-Arizona, told CNN’s Chris Cuomo on “New Day.”

So far, the response by our Administration and the Defense Department has been a futile effort to untangle themselves from the diplomatic/military dog pile we were thrown into. First we have Sec. of State John Kerry holding hands with Russia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergey Lavrof on the very day that Russia bombed Syria.

I never understood the appeal of Trump until I saw Kerry holding hands with Lavrov the day Putin started bombing secular rebels in Syria.

— Daniel Foster (@DanFosterType) October 1, 2015

Have to say, he has a point. While we are running around displaying the equivalent of a headless chicken foreign policy, Putin is implementing his strategy step by step. He’s not worried about acting like a “responsible” government, he’s not waiting for some legal beagle to tell him what can and can’t be done. And he’s definitely not waiting for treaty talks or a “managed transition” Kerry-style. Instead he’s just signed an order drafting 150,000 Russians into the military AND launched another day of bombings over Syria.

If the Administration had paid attention to Mitt Romney a few years back, the stories the last 2 days might be drastically different. AND, if the Administration had listened to the CNN debate the other week, they would’ve realized that Senator Marco Rubio was correct.

https://twitter.com/megynkelly/status/649393239984881664/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Everyone wants to know what happened between Obama and Putin during their meeting on Monday. Quite frankly that no longer matters. What matters is that Putin has his own agenda and strategy. The events in Syria are making that brutally clear. Which means we, as Charles Krauthammer explains, have played right into Putin’s hands.

“The real story is…what happened at the U.N.,” he said, “Putin essentially stepped in and took over Syria. He’s now the leader.”

Fact is, Putin wants to be a global player. Why else is he getting friendly with Iran, wandering at will through Iraq and making it a priority to preserve Syria while thumbing his nose at Obama’s Twizzler-style red lines? Meanwhile Obama is focused on the continued decimation of our military, shutting down our federal government, and diminishing our presence on the world stage.

Putin is filling a power vacuum in Syria that we left wide open – basically ensuring that he is in charge. And that should terrify us all.