The People’s Republic of China’s Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, misunderstands. Or maybe not.

Wang last month began urging the rest of the Six-Party Talks members (the PRC, Japan, the RoK, Russia, and the US) to resume negotiations with northern Korea (the sixth member) regarding its nuclear weapons program. That’s Wang’s misunderstanding.

There’s nothing to negotiate. Northern Korea stands in gross violation of a number of UN mandates requiring it not to have a nuclear weapons program and not to have nuclear weapons. In addition, northern Korea stands in gross violation of prior agreements reached in earlier iterations of the Six-Party Talks.

What’s required now is enforcement of those mandates and agreements. What’s required now is the dismantlement of northern Korea’s nuclear weapons programs and nuclear weapons. By all means necessary.

Of course, the PRC well knows this about its client. A militarily capable—even a little bit—client is a useful tool in the PRC’s power struggle with us. This client, in this condition, is a useful tool in the PRC’s implied threats and open aggression against the nations ringing the East and South China Seas, many of whom are our friends and allies.

Maybe there’s no misunderstanding at all here. The PRC also well knows that talks will produce nothing substantive concerning northern Korea’s nuclear weapons or its belligerence.

A week into Russia’s military intervention in Syria, some top White House advisers and National Security Council staffers are trying to persuade President Barack Obama to scale back US engagement there, to focus on lessening the violence and, for now, to give up on toppling the Syrian regime.

A whole week. But sure, why not? He retreated from Iraq as soon and as fast as he could. He announced his retreat from Afghanistan, and is carrying it out apace (never minding that his Defense advisors and the Afghanis disagree) today. Why not slink away from Syria, too? It’s part of his retreat of the US from all of our positions around the globe.

Then there’s this:

Throughout the summer and into the fall, top Russian officials—including Putin himself…—said they were not committed to keeping Assad in power for the long term, and would only target Islamic State fighters in their military offensive, according to US officials.

These officials no longer believe Russia was telling the truth.

This is the strategic failure of Obama and his White House coterie. They’re so closed in on themselves that they’re far too ignorant of the facts to be able to see this coming. They’re the only ones in the entire country who ever believed, at any point in these last seven years (and far more), that “Russia was telling the truth.”

They’re far too ignorant to see that, of course, Russia would expand to fill the void left by the Obama Retreat.

Unfortunately for the safety of the republic, they’re also the only ones in the entire country who could, and still can, do something about their failure.