Friday, December 23, 2016

Romney Was Right About Russia: Why can’t Trump see it?

President Obama owes Mitt Romney an apology. And so does President-elect Trump.
In an interview with Wolf Blitzer on March 26, 2012, Mr. Romney said that Russia is “without question our No. 1 geopolitical foe.” He went on to explain: When countries such as Iran and North Korea cross the line, “when Assad . . . is murdering his own people” and we go to the United Nations looking for ways to stop them, “Who is it that always stands up with the world’s worst actors? It’s always Russia.”
In the final presidential debate of the 2012 election, Mr. Obama mocked Mr. Romney’s thesis: The 1980s are “calling to ask for their foreign policy back because, you know, the Cold War has been over for 20 years.”
There it is, the Obama syllogism: The Cold War is over, and therefore Russia cannot be our principal geopolitical foe. This is faulty logic and even worse empirical analysis. What was evident in 2012 is even clearer today: Because Vladimir Putin believes that the collapse of the Soviet Union was, as he said in 2005, the greatest geopolitical disaster of the 20th century, he is determined to reverse it by all means necessary. His incursion into Georgia, his seizure of Crimea, his role in the “frozen conflict” in eastern Ukraine—all these are part of a ruthlessly consistent strategy.
While President Obama dithered endlessly over Syria, Vladimir Putin acted. As he did, Mr. Obama predicted that “An attempt by Russia and Iran to prop up Assad . . . is just going to get them stuck in a quagmire, and it won’t work.” Some quagmire. At modest cost, Mr. Putin has rescued Assad and restored Russia’s position in the Middle East, securing a Russian zone of influence that stretches from Lebanon to Iran.
Game, set and match to Mitt Romney. It would be graceful for the president to acknowledge that he was wrong and the man he defeated was right.
Read the rest from William Galston HERE.

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2 comments:

cimbri said...

Romney was right in so far that Russia would resist US imperialism. Why wouldn't they? We all know the US plan. We were running NATO to their border, and were going to engineer a color revolution in Russia, then carve it up into spheres of influence. They saw clearly that we have a lot of problems with our own culture, and wanted no part of it. I'm glad we didn't topple their govt. They would be overrun by now with refugees from bad areas of the world.

EuroKrym said...

#REFERENDUM IN UKRAINE: A RETURN NUCLEAR STATUS!
In postwar history, annexation of a part of a sovereign
country's territory to aggressor state has no precedent.
#USA TRUMP CREATED NEW EURO ARMY an INDEPENDENT FINANCIAL SYSTEM!
http://eurokrym.ho.ua/05pr/fimb.html
Russia's aggression against Ukraine has led to RF international isolation,
including NATO's suspension of all practical cooperation with Russia.
http://eurokrym.ho.ua/06al/
Annexing a neighboring country’s territory by force, Putin overturned in a
single stroke assumptions on which post-Cold War European order has rested.
evrokrym@gmail.com
UkraiNATO Create Army half a Million with an Independent Financial System.
Referendum in Ukraine: a Return Nuclear Status!
http://eurokrym.ho.ua/05pr/nato.html
Moscow's takeover of Crimea brazenly defied UN Charter,
seizing a part of Ukraine's sovereign territory by military force.