There are very few sure things in this life, and even fewer in the world of international politics. But I can say, without fear of contradiction, that at some point in the near future either Iran will attack Israel or Israel will attack Iran. The Obama administration, with its enabling of Russian power on the world stage, has almost insured that Iran will not abandon its nuclear ambitions, and its well vocalized intentions to try and destroy Israel.
Using a rouge nation like Iran as its proxy in a war against the west is nothing new for Russia, and its predecessor, the Soviet Union. Two world wars were fought, to a great extent, because of Soviet manipulation of German leaders who believed they were destined to rule the world, or at least as much as they could. And the Soviets were willing to allow them to continue in that thinking as long as it benefited their purposes. The North Koreans were supplied and encouraged in their incursion into South Korea in the early 1950s by the Soviets, and North Vietnam was likewise encouraged to attack the South.
Even the Gulf wars that we have fought in recent years had Soviet, err I mean, Russian fingerprints all over them. One of Saddam Hussein's biggest morale supporters and suppliers of material contraband against the sanctions in the 1990s was Russia. And now the Russians, helped by weak U.S. leadership in the region, have become the Middle East's puppet master, intent on crushing Israel. The embarrassing second-class world citizenship that Barack Obama has bestowed upon the United States in every situation from Libya to Syria, has Russia salivating at the ease with which they have been able to bring down American influence around the world.
And recently Russian support of the Ukrainian government against reformers in that country has made the re-building of the Soviet empire more of a reality than at any other time in the last quarter century. Many experts surmise that if the Ukraine falls under Russian control, it will be a fait accompli that the rest of Eastern Europe will follow. The Evil Empire that Ronald Reagan was responsible for defeating will have risen out of the ashes of Barack Obama's inept foreign policy.
The oppression of Eastern Europe, and perhaps beyond, will be the result of a world view shared by Barack Obama and others that the United States' influence is the source of conflict in the world. But what their flawed thinking does not account for is that tyranny has always been less likely to germinate in the soil of American influence. And oppression shrinks when in the presence of the sunlight of freedom and liberty cast by the United States of America. Sadly the source of that light has been deliberately muted by Barack Obama, and the shadow of the Soviet empire is growing as a result.
I think a large part of the problem is that the US is perceived as an unreliable ally. And this goes back long before Obama. Roosevelt's betrayal of eastern Europe to Stalin, the shameful betrayal of South Vietnam by the US. It's a fairly long list. Russia by contrast is seen as a more reliable long-term ally. There's no long-term in US foreign policy.
ReplyDeleteTo the extent to which you are correct, it has been Leftist foreign policy in the U.S. that has proven to be unworthy allies. The two examples you mention were both facilitated by Democrats. That is not to say that Republicans have not blunder in the arena of foreign policy, but it has only come when they have abandon conservative principles. Thanks for the comment and for reading.
Delete