Putin Mocks Syria Plan, Obama Leadership Questioned

President Barack Obama is again being forced to defend his Syria policy as evidence mounts that his plan to fight ISIS is failing. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin mocked Barack Obama's Syria policy on Russian TV Sunday.

He said the U.S. should have given him $500 million and he could have used it more effectively than America to fight terrorism in the Middle East. He then suggested the U.S. join his effort to fight ISIS. 

Meanwhile, Obama admitted on CBS' "60 Minutes" Sunday that he's failed so far in his policy in Syria but bristled at the suggestion that Putin has taken the lead in the Middle East:

"You said a year ago that the United States, America, leads; we're the indispensable nation. Putin seems to be challenging that leadership," "60 Minutes" correspondent Steve Kroft noted in this interview with the president.

"In what way?" Obama asked.

"He's moved troops into Syria, for one," Kroft said. "Two, Russia is conducting military operations in the Middle East for the first time since World War II."

"If you think leadership is running your economy into the ground and having to send troops in to prop up your only ally, then we have different definitions of leadership," Obama shot back.

The president went on to say his definition of leadership was taking the lead on fighting climate change.

But Russia is also expanding its influence in the Middle East by selling Iran a new surface-to-air missile system that it can use to defend its nuclear program.  And that comes as Iran has just test-fired a new long range missile that can hit Israel and U.S. military bases in the region.

Appearing on "Fox News Sunday," former National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley and Ambassador Dennis Ross said Putin is simply taking advantage of U.S. weakness.

"The more he (Putin) sees it (U.S. weakness), the more he takes advantage of it and those in the region read it that way," Ross said.

Hadley said, "The United States has been AWOL, and he's (Putin) pursuing an agenda he's had for some time to return Russia to the kind of role the Soviet Union had during the Cold War period.

While Obama continues to insist that Putin's strategy in the Middle East won't work,  the Russian leader keeps advancing in what was once America's area of operation, the Middle East, making that region and the world potentially much more dangerous.