Does Obama Even Realize How Bad His Words Are?

In Berlin today, president Obama decided to lecture President Elect Donald Trump about how to deal with Russia.  The result was bizarre, and that is something of an understatement.  Here's how the AP reported Obama's words:

Offering pointed foreign policy advice to his successor, President Barack Obama expressed hope Thursday that President-elect Donald Trump will stand up to Russia when it deviates from U.S. "values and international norms" and not simply "cut some deals" with Vladimir Putin when convenient....[Obama] said Trump shouldn't "simply take a realpolitik approach and suggest that if we just cut some deals with Russia, even if it hurts people or even if it violates international norms or even if it leaves smaller countries vulnerable or creates long-term problems in regions like Syria, that we just do whatever's convenient at the time."

Think about that for a moment.  Obama, after all, is the man who dropped all the sanctions placed upon Russia for its invasion of Georgia.  That hurt millions of people in Georgia but it was "convenient at the time."  Obama is also the man who let Russia prop up the Assad regime in Syria when it was failing.  Literally hundreds of thousands of Syrians died in the continued fighting, but it was convenient for Obama to avoid any confrontation that might actually stop the Syrian slaughter.  Obama also is letting Russia bomb and attack the non-terrorist Sunni rebels in Syria; those rebels are supposed to be America's allies.  I guess to Obama standing silent while Russia destroys our allies and brutally kills thousands is inconvenient.  And let's not forget Crimea and Ukraine.  Russia invaded these areas and took control.  I always thought that opposition to aggression by one nation against another was one of America's values as well as being an international norm.  Indeed, it is supposed to be the value that underlies the United Nations.  But Obama let it go with barely a comment.

It's just amazing that Obama could be so unaware of his own actions when he lectures Trump.  The truth is that Obama is not unaware; he's just a hypocrite.