Chips cashed in

BBC NEWS | Americas | US 'shelves Europe missile plan'

I thought the idea was that the US would pull back on the missile plan in return for Russia changing its tune on Iran.

Instead, apart from getting entertainment from this oddly graphic metaphor:

Russia's ambassador to Nato, Dmitry Rogozin, said the move was "a breakthrough" for US-Russian relations, although they were waiting for official confirmation from the US.

"It's like having a decomposing corpse in your flat - and then the mortician comes and takes it away.

"This means we're getting rid of one of those niggling problems which prevented us from doing the real work," he said.

there doesn't seem to be any trade off from Russia.

We'll have to wait and see, but if the world takes it as a sign of US weakness, I wonder if this may be seen as the start of a re-run of the Carter presidency.