Remember all the hoopla when president Obama announced at the start of his term that he was "resetting" the relationship with Russia? He even had the Secrtary of State present a red reset button to the Russians. Obama made clear that the "new" relationship with Russia would pay great dividends for America.
Three years later, it is time to take another look to see how that reset plan has worked. In the last month alone the following has happened:
1) Russian ships have been delivering enormous amounts of weapons to the Assad regime in Syria despite efforts by the USA to limit the arms flow to that country.
2) Russian made artillery was used just today to kill about 90 people (mostly children) in Syria. These folks had the misfortune to be in a town where demonstrations against Assad had taken place yesterday.
3) When the g-8 met at Camp David, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, did not even bother to attend. As a result, it was impossible for any agreement to be reached on steps that might help tamp down the fighting in Syria or increase the chances that Iran would stop its nuclear programs.
4) A few weeks ago, Russia announced that if the USA did not stop installing anti-missile systems in parts of Europe which would be able to shot down any Iranian missiles launched in attacks against that continent, then Russia would take it upon itself to use its force to destroy the missile sites. Let me make that one clear. Russia adamantly opposes any country using force to destroy the Iranian nuclear program. On the other hand, Russia threatens to use for to destroy an American missile defense system which could defend against Iranian nuclear missiles.
There is a lot more, but what could speak louder than Russian threats to launch a military strike against American bases in Europe? Simply put, the "reset" program has been an unmitigated disaster. Under Obama, American policy towards Russia has been a series of capitulations followed by a list of embarrassments. In other words, Reset is a total failure.
No comments:
Post a Comment