A Mistake?

A lot of pundits say Vlad Putin made a huge mistake by sending troops to Ukraine.  They say it was a blunder and a demonstration of weakness.  The same pundits were saying the same thing about Assad mass-killing his own people in Syria.  But here's the thing: these pundits are explaining the situation as if Vlad Putin or Bashar Assad spend their Sunday's brunching and reading the New York Times worrying about what their upper middle class peer group thinks of them.  On the contrary, these guys are playing a different game and the stakes for them are life and death.  Did you see what happened to Gaddafi when he lost the war?  He was dragged through the streets like an animal, anally penetrated by a knife, murdered along with his son and 60-100 of his loyal bodyguards.  Don't think Assad didn't see the video and think to himself: that's not happening to me.  And wouldn't you be willing to use chemical weapons to avoid the same fate?

I feel like our description of these behaviors as "foolish" is itself a reflection of foolishness.  We are saying "gosh, if I were Putin, I wouldn't do this."  But that's the whole frigging point.  History is full of "foolishness."  The entire Confederacy was a foolish mistake.  Hitler was foolish.  For many, the American Revolution was a foolish gambit.  I guess my point is that these guys are playing a game of survival and so long as they are surviving, they are winning.  They aren't looking to be Gorbachev's -- heroes in the West -- but no where else.