Has President Obama already sold out eastern Europe to the Russians?
Ellison thinks that “Obama’s people believe that many global problems will be more easily solved together with Moscow.” In particular, nuclear disarmament. Ellison says that Obama will “sacrifice a lot” to get it. You know, the way Czechoslovakia was “sacrificed” to a certain mustachioed German house painter several decades ago.
Is Barack Obama going to become America’s Chamberlain? Is he going to ignore the horrific spate of obviously political murders the Kremlin has been committing ever since Putin arrived? The invasion of Georgia? The relentless anti-American rhetoric? The nuclear bombers buzzing Alaska with metronomic regularity?
Is he going to eliminate nuclear deterrence in Europe and leave its eastern regions helplessly vulnerable to Russian tanks, just as Georgia was left vulnerable?
It seems so. As blindly as Chamberlain, Obama appears to believe that our foes can be appeased into becoming friends and that we can rightly sacrifice smaller nations to our noble vision.
I wonder if people thought they were voting for this last fall?
I was hoping the topic would be about Joshua Chamberlain. Regrettably, the given name is “Neville”.
Is Obama Chamberlain or Hitler? This is getting confusing.
Total nuclear disarmament is foolish, as it encourages stockpiling by smaller nuclear powers and weakens the threat of mutual destruction that has prevented conventional war between superpowers for half a century.
…just as Georgia was left vulnerable?
So in Summer 2008, as Russian offensive forces attacked and occupied Georgian territory, Bush failed to deploy defensive U.S. forces on Georgian soil. Was he pulling a Chamberlain, too?
…ignore the horrific spate of obviously political murders
Bush looked in to Putin’s eyes and saw the soul of a man he could trust. Was Bush also an appeaser?
Was Bush also an appeaser?
He was certainly naive in many ways.
If I were the Polish government, I’d be talking to France or Israel about purchasing some nukes.
I thought those interceptors were aimed at deterring Iran. The 10 or 20 we were planning on deploying could hardly stop a Russian attack. Besides, Poland is still in NATO, and we still participate in NATO.
I thought those interceptors were aimed at deterring Iran.
They were. The point is that the Poles are worried about what else the administration may be willing to concede to Russia to get its (unrealistic) goal of no nukes.
Yes, Bush was an idiot as far as Russian foreign policy is concerned. Probably for the same reason Obama is: neither man really gave a damn about Russia, or Eastern Europe for that matter. People sometimes forget that Bush was elected on a purely domestic platform. His concerns only turned to foreign policy because of 9/11, and I think is only to real concerns were the WoT, Iraq, and humanitarian efforts in Africa.
Obama will do worse only because he is more arrogant, and less capable of learning than Bush. Also, I don’t think Bush ever mistook academic theorizing for practical wisdom. Obama routinely does.
Bush was a poor president in many ways but no one expected much of him. He exceeded expectations, most notably in his initial responses to 9/11 and by his handling of foreign affairs for the subsequent three or four years. Obama has not only been invested with tremendous popular expectations but appears to be less qualified to be president by virtue of character and experience than was any other US chief executive in recent memory. Arrogance, unwillingness to learn, commitment to an agenda of national transformation that few other Americans share — Obama’s salient qualities do not bode well.
Bush will never live down his stupid quote about Putin. But aside from the quote can any Bush critic actually name a Bush policy that was weak towards Russia? I’d much rather have a president who says stupid things about Russia than a president who does stupid things about Russia.
Obama is a socialist at heart as is Putin. Putin just knows how to use power better. After generations spent protecting Germany, Putin will get if for a bluff.
Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.