7 Ways Putin is Playing 3D Chess While Obama is Figuring Out Checkers
By Kyle Becker
Oh, international relations. It’s a place hostile to the naive pretensions of idealists who believe they can “change the world” with mere lofty rhetoric and a charismatic smile. Spend any time in the statesman’s chair navigating the ship of state through the murky, shark-infested waters of global disorder and one learns quickly that strength is the coin of the realm, while weakness invites mischief.
Here are 7 ways that show that Obama and Hillary’s “reset” button (comically mistranslated as an “overcharge” button) is the perfect symbol for the U.S.’ misguided and amateurish foreign policy.
1. ABM defense in Poland & Czech Republic scrapped in cave-in to Russia
“In one of the biggest national security reversals of his young presidency, Mr. Obama canceled former President George W. Bush’s plans to station a radar facility in the Czech Republic and 10 ground-based interceptors in Poland.” – New York Times
2. Hands off Syria & what was that about a “red line”?
“When Barack Obama warned Vladimir Putin that ‘there will be costs’ for violating Ukrainian sovereignty, I doubt the Kremlin worried too much. The Syria crisis taught is all about Obama and his ‘red lines’. This is a president who recoils at the idea of any new entanglement, whose attention is on the Pacific rather than Eurasia and is less worried than any of his recent predecessors about Russian aggression.” – Spectator
3. No strong opposition to Russia’s invasion of Crimea
“Former World Chess champion and political activist, Garry Kasparov, took to social media to express his outrage over Obama administrator’s assessment of Russia’s presence in the Ukraine as a [sic] ‘uncontested arrival.’ He tweeted on Friday: ‘WHAT?! MT @stephenfhayes: Admin tell CNN’s this is an ‘uncontested arrival’ not necessarily ‘an invasion’ & that this distinction is ‘key.’” – Washington Times
4. Nuclear disarmament/inspections – really favorable towards Russia
As a part of his infinitely naive and dangerous Global Nuclear Zero, which would supposedly eliminate the nuclear weapons that have preserved “the long peace” after World War II, Obama signed a new START treaty. The disadvantageous treaty dramatically cuts U.S. nuclear arms forces, while simultaneously greenlighting a Russian initiative to maintain and modernize its own nuclear stockpiles. Putin is now threatening to withdraw from START inspections over the Crimean conflict; but the U.S. should quit START anyway in light of Russian aggression. But Obama won’t.
5. Deporting Anna Chapman spy ring without questioning in exchange for peanuts
“Former spy Anna Chapman signed up with the youth wing of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party, and was promptly appointed to its public council, the BBC reports… Chapman was exposed in the United States along with nine other so-called sleeper agents in an FBI sting operation and deported back to Russia this summer. Rather than recede into anonymity like the other agents, Chapman has reveled in the fame, the AP reports.” – CBS News
6. Did nothing about Snowden defecting to Russia with NSA secrets
“Already faltering, President Barack Obama’s five-year effort to reboot U.S.-Russian relations finally crashed Wednesday, as the White House abruptly canceled his planned face-to-face summit with Russia’s Vladimir Putin. The effort to upgrade the relationship has fallen victim to the rapidly shrinking common ground between the former Cold War rivals, including extreme differences over the Syrian civil war, Russia’s domestic crackdown on civil rights and – the final straw – the asylum granted to National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden.” – Huffington Post
7. Obama compelled Ukraine to destroy weapons, leaving them more vulnerable to a Russian attack
“As a U.S. senator, Barack Obama won $48 million in federal funding to help Ukraine destroy thousands of tons of guns and ammunition – weapons which are now unavailable to the Ukrainian army as it faces down Russian President Vladimir Putin during his invasion of Crimea.” – Daily Mail
It’s absolutely gobsmacking that as a Senator and a U.S. President that Barack Obama can be so repeatedly and consistently gullible to obvious Russian aggression that was noticable at least as early as the August War of 2008, when Russia attacked Georgia.
Then again, maybe Obama isn’t naive at all; he’s just being ‘flexible.’
Paging Barack Obama: Russian Troops Seize Military Hospital, Missile Base In Ukraine