President Obama, flushed with victory after ramming his Heath Care takeover through Congress in the face of overwhelming popular opposition, has traveled to Prague in the Czech Republic to sign a new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. The new treaty will replace the 1991 START I agreement.
But on the eve of the historic signing, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has announced that Russia reserves the right to withdraw from the treaty if future development of a U.S. missile defense system threatens to minimize Russian nuclear capability to destroy the United States.
That’s an interesting development. The Russians have agreed to abide by the new treaty until such time as they decide not to abide by it anymore. I guess that is an improvement over the methods of the old Soviet Union, which made many treaties with the United States and simply disregarded them, either in whole or in part.
And what is the response of the Obama Administration to the novel Russian approach to treaties? No worries, everything is just fine. Mr Obama has told the New York Times that he “sees the U.S. leading by example in an effort to reduce nuclear proliferation and eventually make them obsolete.”
That’s probably just what the Russians will do, too. They will look at Mr Obama unilaterally reducing the U.S. nuclear arsenal while refusing to improve and modernize it and decide to follow suit. Right. Or is Mr. Obama living in a fantasy land where idealistic notions of nuclear disarmament take the place of serious National Security Policy?
Actually, what they will do is what they, and all other nations have always done: they will act in their own self-interest. They will not follow suit and unilaterally reduce their own nuclear stockpiles. When they stop laughing at the ridiculous attempt to induce nuclear disarmament through U.S. good behavior, they will understand they are dealing with a weak and irrational idealist who is not grounded in reality. Wolves in the wild are quick to sense weakness in their prey. The Russians, to say nothing of the lesser belligerents of the world (North Korea, Iran, the Palestinians, Venezuela and radical muslim jihadiis worldwide) will take immediate advantage of this clear demonstration of weakness on the part of the U.S. president.
But what is much worse will be the result of the Russian statement threatening withdrawal from the treaty if U.S. missile defense reaches maturity. While most U.S. presidents in the past, even democrat presidents, would realize the Russian attempt to intimidate for what it is, Mr. Obama, with his delusional world-view is apt to cave to the Russian threat, and unilaterally halt further development of the American missile defense system. He will do this expecting the Russians to follow suit.
Once again, when the laughter in the Kremlin ceases, the Russians will once again press their advantage over the hopelessly ignorant and inept U.S. president to gain further concessions. The sad thing is that they will keep receiving concessions from this president, because that is the only thing he knows: concessions to the strong. One wonders if Mr Obama will bow in the presence of Russian President Dmitri Medvedev when the meet for the signing ceremony, as he has to other heads of state.
Mr Obama is in the process of demonstrating his unbelievable incompetence in international affairs to a more striking extent than he has done in domestic policy failures. The danger is that when his policies fail miserably at home, there is only bone-crushing national debt, deep recession and never-ending unemployment to contend with. Failure to protect the American people from the truly dangerous wolves that lurk out in the wide world could easily lead to the destruction of the United States and the end of the Republic.
We simply cannot afford to indulge this president’s fantasies about international power politics. The world is too dangerous a place for the practice of childish foreign policy.
