Vladimir Putin is no longer president but he is de facto tsar. And he thinks it’s past time to reconstitute the old empire — not formally (yet), but certainly as a sphere of influence from which the Yanks keep their distance. President Obama has just handed the Russians their biggest win since the collapse of the Iron Curtain. Indeed, in some ways it marks the restitching of the Iron Curtain. When the Czechs signed their end of the missile-defense deal in July, they found themselves afflicted by a sudden “technical difficulty” that halved their gas supply from Russia. The Europe Putin foresees will be one not only ever more energy-dependent on Moscow but security-dependent, too — in which every city is within range of missiles from Tehran and other crazies, and is in effect under the security umbrella of the new tsar. As to whether such a Continent will be amicable to American interests, well, good luck with that, hopeychangers.
Yes indeed, I wondered how much the Europeans would enjoy Moscow's finger on their energy and missile defense buttons.
Think about it. We face the problem of coping with a rising China which may or may not be a friend as it rises. And instead of securing our rear with our Hopey-Ex-soviet Non-Aggression Pact to focus on China, we shake the confidence of our new NATO members who escaped from the Soviet empire and leave Ukraine rather alone, and encourage Russia to push against us to recover as much of their lost empire as possible. The Georgians had best look elsewhere in the short run for weapons and training to defend themselves from another attack by Russia.
I wish I could say this was amateur hour in the White House. But that would imply that they'll eventually learn. No, this isn't going to get better. What we are seeing is based on ideology that thinks America is almost always wrong and American power is a force for evil.
Early steps that seemed to indicate a more pragmatic foreign policy, such as retaining domestic security laws, completing the war in Iraq, and winning in Afghanistan are clearly--as I thought--just things to be done to avoid being blamed for disaster in the short run that might hinder the project of transforming our domestic economy and politics leftward. Avoiding television reports of defeat through the 2010 mid-term elections is our only foreign policy objective, I fear.
Yes, Secretary Gates will be allowed to finish the war in Iraq and keep fighting in Afghanistan (Gates I think sincerely cares about our troops and does not want to lose those wars, making our losses pointless), but at the price of providing legitimacy to generally lowering our defenses on the theory that in the medium term we face no real threats.
But outside of those three security areas, we are seeing the basic leftist thinking of our administration assert itself. Apologies all around, the love of talk over results, anti-Israel positions, sucking up to Latin American communists and thugs, wondering again why Islamo-fascists hate us, sucking up to Iran's thugs and various mini-thugs like Syria and Burma, hating missile defenses (think Reagan), letting our defenses erode, and generally treating our friends as suspect.
And why wouldn't the administration warily eye our friends? The administration clearly doesn't think much about America's history or role in the world--if our allies like us, how awful must they be?
We're running away and calling it nuanced "smart" diplomacy. Our enemies will follow in our wake. We shall see what's left of our defenses and alliances after the retreat from Moscow is over.
Yeah, our diplomacy is going to smart alright--indeed, it's going to leave a mark.
