Obama is ignoring Russia's global reach

Washington Examiner Editorial:

That President Obama is ill-suited to lead on the world stage has become painfully obvious as Vladimir Putin consolidates his Crimeanaggression and lays the groundwork for new adventures elsewhere in eastern Ukraine and the Baltic states. Whether due to a lack of basic historical knowledge or the blinding influence of left-wing ideology, Obama's stumbling is inflicting immense and perhaps irreparable damage to the ability of the U.S. to protect its legitimate national security, political and commercial interests around the globe.

He certainly didn't intend to do so, but ABC News reporter Jonathan Karl brought a brutally clear focus to these worries on March 25 when he put this question to Obama in the Netherlands: “In China, in Syria, in Egypt, and now in Russia, we've seen you make strong statements, issue warnings that have been ignored. Are you concerned that America's influence in the world -- our influence in the world -- is on the decline? And in light of recent developments, do you think Mitt Romney had a point when he said that Russia is America's greatest geopolitical foe? If not Russia, who?”

One passage in particular from Obama's response to Karl stands out: “Russia is a regional power that is threatening some of its immediate neighbors -- not out of strength, but out of weakness. ... The fact that Russia felt compelled to go in militarily and lay bare these violations of internationallaw indicates less influence, not more.” Putin's Russia clearly is not the global colossus that was the Soviet Union, but Obama's reference to Russia as merely a “regional power” is frighteningly ill-informed.

“They're on the march,” Gen. James Kelly, commander of U.S. Southern Command, told a March 13 Senate hearing, according to The Hill. “They're working the scenes where we can't work. And they're doing a pretty good job.” He also said there has been a “noticeable uptick in Russian power projection and security force personnel” in Latin America, and he added, “It has been over three decades since we last saw this type of high-profile Russian military presence.” In other words, today's Russia is acting very much like yesterday's Soviet Union.
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The Russians are resetting port arrangements in Cuba and looking to exp[and n places like Venezuela.  From those ports the Russians can threaten strategic assets of the US on the Gulf Coast with cruise missiles that could strike most of this country's refining capacity.

The Democrats policy of artificial oil and gas scarcity empower Russia and Venezuela at our expense.  To defeat them, we should immediately remove all impediments to drilling in the US and its coastal waters.

Ralph Peters has more on Obama's historical illiteracy.