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Obama skips over important issue while in Russia last week
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Barack Obama will no doubt regale Americans with stories of how he convinced the Russians to reduce their nuclear weapons and had managed to “collaborate” on issues with the former Soviets. In the classical liberal sense, Obama has neither the grasp nor the inclination to focus on what Russia and its breakaway states really need and desire: freedom and democracy.
When it comes to the Russians, it takes a lot more than schmoozing and red carpeted entrances to back away from 50 years of Cold War sentiment. While Barack Obama was giving a speech to students at the New Economic School, a state-run newspaper had declared that the American president was being run over by a combine harvester with Vladimir Putin in the driver’s seat.
But it doesn’t make a difference whether the Russians reduce their stockpile by one-third or one-tenth. The Cold War showed us that the Russians are willing to spend so much on weapons that they reach oblivion; all for appearance’s sake.
In fact, the trip to Moscow last week is a sign that the White House is headed down the wrong path on Russian policy altogether. Mr. Obama has stated that the U.S. and Russia, “are not destined to be antagonists,” and that, “we resolved to reset” our issues.
Former KGB agent and Russian Federation leader by proxy Putin, while pulling on the strings of President Dimitriy Medvedev, desires nothing but antagonism in order to feed his desires of one bolshoi state and to keep breakaway republics from joining NATO.
Stockpiled weapons and a useless treaty should be the least of Obama’s priorities. Scarcely mentioned in the mainstream media, his visit to Rossiya overlapped the “Caucasus 2009,” a military training exercise meant to prepare Russian soldiers for upcoming war. The Caucasus is structured around the southwestern regions of the former USSR—namely, the Republic of Georgia and regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
As much as President Bush wanted to spread democracy in the Middle East, he had just as much as the same desire for the former Soviet republics. In fact, he saw Georgia as an example to Arab countries that achieving freedom, democracy, and human rights may “not be easy, but a sovereign Georgia will be a beacon of hope for this region and the world.”
But with Obama at the helm, American defense of liberty may turn out to be nothing more than a distant memory. Medvedev and Putin met with Obama not to jointly push the reset button, but to test the waters entirely. Putin’s underhandedness is no secret: according to Yulia Latyina of The Moscow Times, “Putin wanted to see if he could start a war without western repercussions.” Russia does not seek “collaboration” on this issue; it seeks total domination.
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili was so concerned about White House support that he engaged in a May FoxNews interview, stating that “abandoning Georgia would mean abandoning the idea of freedom in a very huge part of Eurasia.”
Putin has not only criticized free speech and assembly in Georgia—he once threatened to “hang Saakashvili by the balls”—he openly told Obama that if the U.S. wants a “true reset, they should forget about Georgia.”
All the while, Barry is sitting with FoxNews, waxing philosophical about the good old fashioned dictator: “some of his continued grievances with respect to the west are still dated in some of his suspicions that came out of that period.”
Dated or not, Medvedev’s and Putin’s desire to dominate Georgia remain steadfast. Fancy rhetoric from Obama’s mouth (“Georgia’s sovereignty must be restored”) will do nothing at this point to stop them from repeating the same aggression as last year.
At that time, Putin was at home strategizing his next move concerning Georgia. Meanwhile, Presidents Bush and Saakashvili took in an Olympic event in Beijing and vowed to support one another. Once Putin got hold of the news that the US would not ignore Russian aggression, Putin made his move. Thanks to the swift move of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Russia agreed to remove itself from Georgia (but still occupies 20 percent of Abkhazia and South Ossetia).
Obama’s NES speech glossed over the Georgian issue in just one paragraph, while completely ignoring that democracy and freedom are at the point of contention. “A great power does not show strength,” he said to Russia’s future leaders, “by demonizing and dominating other countries.” MedPutin undoubtedly view this as nothing more than one prod away from Georgian war number two.
Indeed, recent polls have shown that the Russian people are very skeptical about Americans in general and Obama specifically. According to one top anchor on state-run television, Obama’s visit was sheer propaganda in order to prepare the country for another war.
It would behoove the US to beef up its military operations in Georgia and its neighboring regions, but that reality seems slim to none (after all, Obama asked for “collaboration”). Georgia has stated that it would use any means possible to defend its freedom and democracy, and it would be beneficial to all freedom-lovers to lend them a hand in their endeavors.
What MedPutin needs right now is a distraction from the terrible economic conditions that shadow Russia, and what better opportunity than to wage war in a republic that is merely fighting for freedom. A victory for Russia would not only enable them to wash their hands of Saakashvili, but it would humiliate the US.
Those who truly believe in freedom and democracy would surely stand behind Georgia’s back, but for now we must settle for pointless arms reductions from ex-communists.
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