The ultimate effect of a weak President, Its enemies on the move. Text Paper Translate Listen A U.S. Failure To Be Powerful Geopolitics: The brazen seizure of Crimea by Putin’s Russia has brought into bold relief how the world would look if America is unable or unwilling to project power and influence. Is this what our diplomatic president wanted? As the Russia of Vladimir Putin lunges uncontested to defend its traditional interests in Ukraine’s Crimea, sending in troops to seize state buildings, bottle up the Ukrainian military on its home bases, and force Ukrainian warships to surrender, there’s little doubt the 19th century has called and wants its hard reality back. These “most seismic geopolitical events since 9/11,” as forecaster Ian Bremmer called them, are all because of a foreign policy has left foes and competitors with little to fear from what supposedly is the world’s lone superpower, the United States. Barack Obama’s cheerleaders say what’s happening in the Ukraine really doesn’t matter, since there never was anything our president — or any president — could do about it. Then again, as the Chinese foreign ministry put it: “There are reasons for today’s situation (there).” One is that Putin was confident there’d be no Tennysonian Charge of the Light Brigade for his second-rate army to worry about if he struck his weaker neighbor. The signals came fast and thick, and not just in the form of the U.S. military drawdown, or the utterly failed “Russian Reset” policy implemented by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. It was also one “red line” after another that was laid down only to be crossed without consequence. Obama’s line on Syria was erased six months ago by Putin himself, who watched as Obama bizarrely tried to spin that into a victory for himself and concluded here was a leader who would not fight. Libya was another signal, not just in Obama’s “leading from behind” approach to dislodging dictator Moammar Gadhafi, but more pointedly in the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, where our ambassador was murdered and dragged through the streets by an al-Qaida-led mob as cell phone cameras clicked. Not only did the administration do nothing in the consulate’s defense, it insisted until facts caught up that this was no act of terror but just an out-of-control crowd enraged at a blasphemous video. Then there were the signals from Afghanistan. After spending untold blood and treasure to secure the U.S. from the mass murder that comes of a failed state run by Taliban and al-Qaida, Obama initiated a full pullout of U.S. forces, abandoning the country to a corrupt government, drug dealers and an insurgency that openly plans to restore the former terrorist failed state. There was also the hasty U.S. pullout of Iraq, making U.S. blood and treasure expended there a gift to Iran. And let’s not forget the cuts in U.S. defense spending. What has happened in Ukraine is the logical outcome of this long series of signals that have telegraphed a United States that is unwilling to be strong.
Posted on: Tue, 04 Mar 2014 13:19:16 +0000
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