Most strikingly, he dropped Russian objections to the deployment of American and other NATO counterterrorism forces in Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and elsewhere in Russia's Central Asian sphere of influence.
The Russians also threatened to target missiles at Ukraine if the Ukrainians joined NATO and accepted deployment of American missiles.A business tycoon from Georgia, Badri Patarkatsishvili, died of a sudden heart attack in Britain.
The amendment was nevertheless hailed by The Washington Post as "the first time in our history that Congress has attempted to limit the deployment of American troops in the course of an ongoing war".
Jeb Bush, after straining, for months, to distance himself from his brother's invasion of Iraq, said, "We should declare war" on the Islamic State, and called for the deployment of American troops "without their hands tied".
The constitutional crisis, for that is what it is, is much deeper than the one caused in the 1970s, when a war-weary Congress sought to end the deployment of American troops in Indochina.
Many European officials are not happy about the new isolationism they see in the House of Representatives, which tried to end the deployment of American peacekeepers in Kosovo.
The US and Poland are discussing the deployment of American heavy weapons in eastern Europe in response to Russian expansionism and sabre-rattling in the region in what represents a radical break with post-cold war military planning.
American officials argue that the willingness of Arab states to take the American emplacements, which usually come with a small deployment of American soldiers to operate, maintain and protect the equipment, illustrates the region's growing unease about Iran's ambitions and abilities.
During his stint as Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Ople was at the forefront of the negotiations that led to the deployment of American military forces inside the Philippines, though he insisted that the American troops would not participate in combat missions.
Russia has between 3,000 and 5,000 of them, depending on the estimate, and American officials have said Moscow moved more of them closer to NATO allies as recently as last spring in response to the deployment of American missile defense installations closer to its territory.
Last week, the House approved an amendment to a military authorization bill that would prevent the deployment of American ground troops to Libya.
