On June 24, the White House released a fact sheet on US-Russian relations, and the "Reset." It read like this:
In one of his earliest new foreign policy initiatives, President Obama sought to reset relations with Russia and reverse what he called a “dangerous drift” in this important bilateral relationship. President Obama and his administration have sought to engage the Russian government to pursue foreign policy goals of common interest – win-win outcomesPresident Obama outlined the steps that he would take to reset US-Russia relations. These steps included:
- A New START Treaty that reduces limits on U.S. and Russian deployed strategic warheads by approximately one third. Now we have Russian bombers practicing nuclear missile runs on the US.
- Russia confirmed that it will not deliver S-300 missiles to Iran, in accordance with a UN resolution.
Iran now has the missiles, claiming that they made them locally, but rumor has it that they were sold to Iran by Croatia.
- The United States and Russia were to have collaborated closely within the framework of the G20 on measures to address the global economic crisis, and on the coordination of the reform of financial regulation.
Sanctions put in place because of the Ukraine crisis have forced Russia to deepen ties with China and other states that have grown tired of the US using its economic influence as a club.
The Obama doctrine is an abject failure.
I'm coming more and more to the conclusion that the Soviets per-se weren't the "problem" - they might have even modulated it somewhat by pride and arrogance while their economy failed - but that Russians ARE the problem.
ReplyDeleteThey've been expansionist since before the Great War, and they helped fund the Serbian separatists who kicked that one into gear. Then at the start of WWII Molotov and Von Ribbentrop carved Europe into their own spheres of influence - and seventy-odd years later now it's Gazprom and oil money...