In foreign policy, the US is seen as either a swaggering bully or a dithering coward.

In effect, there were repeated games of chicken between governments and major financial institutions in the US and Western Europe.

This stands in marked contrast to the cowardly and complicit silence of other governments in the region.

Both sides firmly agree that there is nothing that the weakened and cowardly West can do to restrain Russia, a nuclear and petroleum superpower, beyond financial retribution against those Russian rulers with vast assets abroad.

I would also like to point out that this dastardly act has led to an escalation of tension in the region, particularly because in some quarters, either on the basis of a suspect or premeditated scheme or out of bad faith, this crime has been used in a despicable manner in order to fan the flames of hostility against Syria and to increase accusations against it.