“The Cold War’s been over for 20 years.” – President Obama, 2012 Debate
That was President Obama’s snarky, arrogant response to Mitt Romney’s belief that Russia was the biggest geopolitical threat facing America. “When it comes to our foreign policy, you seem to want to import the foreign policies of the 1980s …” he added.
President Obama mocked Mitt Romney for his stance on Russia during the 2012 debates. ( museumofuncutfunk.com/AP Al Goldman)
Of course, we know that while warning Americans about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s intentions to reassert his power, particularly over Ukraine, Romney did not dismiss the threat of Al Qaeda and Iran.
And remember when Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin was mocked during the 2008 campaign when she said, “After the Russian army invaded the nation of Georgia, Senator Obama’s reaction was one of indecision and moral equivalence, the kind of response that would only encourage Russia’s Putin to invade Ukraine.”
“This is a far-fetched scenario,” wrote Blake Hounshell, then the editor of the elite Foreign Policy magazine, as he dismissed Palin’s statement as “strange.”
Yesterday, we learned that the Pentagon’s top official overseeing military relations with Russia and Ukraine is resigning amid the debate within the administration over how to respond to Russian moves in Ukraine and now Syria.
Evelyn Farkas (defense.gov)
Evelyn Farkas, deputy assistant secretary of defense on Russia policy, is leaving her position after five years with the Defense Department, where she has counseled three secretaries of defense on Russia. You will recall that the previous defense secretary, Chuck Hagel, was forced to resign after he urged a stronger response to Russian aggression.
And today, we are told a Russian general walked into our embassy in Bagdad and asked the U.S. to get out of Syria.
Question. What has been the counsel of Obama’s foremost foreign policy expert, Joe Biden, regarding Russia? I recall when he warned Obama supporters to “gird their loins” if Obama is elected, because international leaders may test or try to take advantage of him.
Then there’s his secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, who presented a “restart” button to Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, and had to walk back her belief that Syria’s Assad was “a reformer.”
Before we get too excited about our outsiders, let’s not forget it was an outsider (Obama) who got us into this mess.
