From the outset of his first term, Obama indicated that a “reset” of the US/Russian relations was a key diplomatic objective. In doing so, he inferred that much of the problems with Russian relations in the past were caused by George W. Bush. He actually sent Hillary to Geneva to meet with her Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, where she presented him with a giant red reset button which to Hillary’s embarrassment was mistakenly worded “overload” in Russian instead of reset. Since then our relations with Russia have greatly deteriorated. We capitulated and scrapped the missile shield for Poland and Czech Republic. We voluntarily cut the U.S. nuclear stockpile with nothing given in return. We withdrew U.S. support for NATO membership for Georgia and Ukraine and under Putin, Russia continues to support our enemies Iran and Syria and has strengthened their ties to China.
Putin embarrassed Obama by giving Snowden asylum in spite of requests to have him extradited. Putin outfoxed Obama again by taking charge of the civil war in Syria after they crossed Obama’s imaginary red line in the sand by using chemical weapons. We all remember Obama’s meeting with Putin where during the news conference both just sat there and stared at the floor. It was unbelievable to watch. These two clearly don’t like each other. Now to top all of this off, Putin has invaded Crimea. Obama responded by sending John Kerry to Kiev and Paris to meet with Lavrof, who has no authority to act on any of this. Putin’s sensing weakness on Obama’s part has made up his mind on this and nothing we do now will change that. Doesn’t that make you feel better? Obama’s “reset” with Russia has been a complete failure and an embarrassing diplomatic debacle for the U.S. I as all of us should be very concerned about the future of our country with this bunch in charge.
Don Williamson
Arlington
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