NEW YORK TIMES Op Ed: “John McCain on Responding to Russia’s Aggression” writes:
“…[Vladimir] Putin also saw a lack of resolve in President Obama’s actions beyond Europe. In Afghanistan and Iraq, military decisions have appeared driven more by a desire to withdraw than to succeed. Defense budgets have been slashed based on hope, not strategy. Iran and China have bullied America’s allies at no discernible cost. Perhaps worst of all, Bashar al-Assad crossed President Obama’s ‘red line’ by using chemical weapons in Syria, and nothing happened to him.
“For Mr. Putin, vacillation invites aggression. His world is a brutish, cynical place, where power is worshiped, weakness is despised, and all rivalries are zero-sum. He sees the fall of the Soviet Union as the ‘greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.’ He does not accept that Russia’s neighbors, least of all Ukraine, are independent countries. To him, they are Russia’s “near abroad” and must be brought back under Moscow’s dominion by any means necessary.”
On the contrary, it was President George W. Blush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld who made the USA weak through a foolish invasion of Iraq, an attempt at nation building there and in Afghanistan, and huge fiscal deficits by not funding the wars and through tax reductions for the rich. They also caused the deaths and maiming of perhaps a hundred thousand people and trashed the generations of international good will through their disdain for the rule of law and the opinions of other leaders.
President Obama has to play the hand they left him with huge fiscal deficits and a deep recession. Given our weakened circumstances and the rise in wealth and influence of other nations across the world (a very good thing at that!), he is acting with prudence and caution.
However, if Putin thinks Barack Obama is weak, he may be in for a big surprise. But it won’t come directly from the USA but rather from the EU with support and leadership behind the scene from our country. That is the way it should be and must be now and in the future.
The day of the USA going it alone is over. McCain hasn’t woken up to this.
