In February 1945, three world leaders -- FDR, Stalin and Churchill -- gathered in Yalta, in Crimea, to discuss the fate of post-war Europe. At that conference, FDR signed away half of Germany, all of Poland, enslavement of the German population to the Soviet Union. While the conference suggested that liberated countries would be granted free elections, no enforcement mechanism was put in place, so the Soviets effectively annexed every piece of land they occupied.
FDR insisted he had not been duped. "Poor Neville Chamberlain believed he could trust Hitler," FDR said days after the conference. "He was wrong. But I don't think I'm wrong about Stalin." FDR was wrong about Stalin, of course. But he had reason to be wrong -- he had been misinformed by his own supposed allies. Soviet agent Alger Hiss worked as part of the American delegation at Yalta; communist superspy Kim Philby and the rest of the so-called "Cambridge Five" funneled papers from the British and the Americans regarding their positions on Poland.
So it's fair to let FDR off the hook, at least minimally, for Yalta.
Not so with President Obama. He is busily Yalta-ing the United States and her allies knowing full well that the free world will suffer for it.
Take, for example, President Obama's recent nuclear arms reduction treaty with Russia. Obama championed it in order to set an example for the rest of the world: "With this agreement, the United States and Russia … send a clear signal that we intend to lead," he said. "By upholding our own commitments under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, we strengthen our global efforts to stop the spread of these weapons, and to ensure that other nations meet their own responsibilities." How will we ensure that other nations meet their own responsibilities? He does not say (shades of Yalta).
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What's worse, though, is the fact that Russia gained more than the United States did in this treaty deal -- the United States effectively revoked her right to create any sort of missile defense shield for Europe. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, front man for Vladimir Putin, told George Stephanopoulos on Sunday that if the U.S. pursued missile defense, Russia would pull out of the treaty forthwith. You can bet that President Obama will shelve missile defense as soon as possible based on the Russians' baseless objections.
Even as President Obama hailed the deal as some sort of breakthrough for world relations, Russia maintained that it would not support heavy sanctions against Iran. Russia's position completely undermines Obama's credibility -- it's difficult to claim that arms reduction agreement somehow creates a united front against Iran's nuclear development when Russia refuses to stand up against Iranian nuclear development.
And that still wasn't the worst of it -- the very same week Obama signed the arms reduction deal, Russia backed a coup in Kyrgyzstan. One of Russia's conditions for supporting the coup? The new government's destruction of the American air base in Manas, a crucial U.S. strategic asset used heavily in the Afghanistan war.
Notably, the Obama administration has yet to take a position on the Kyrgyzstan situation, allowing the Russian-backed revolution to continue gaining ground. The Obama administration was not nearly as shy with regard to the fully constitutional change of power in Honduras -- that was an outrage, a coup!
That's no surprise, of course. President Obama only backs policies that hurt the United States and her allies. He seeks self-flagellation of America before the world; absolution for American imperialism can only be found in purposeful self-subversion. Obama feels that America and its allies must be whittled down to its proper size as quickly as possible.
In that spirit, Obama is hosting the Nuclear Security Summit this week. He already opened it by bowing to Chinese President Hu Jintao, hugging socialist Brazilian president Luiz Lula, and pointing his finger angrily at Canadian Prime Minister and pro-Israel advocate Stephen Harper. He has alienated Israel to the point where they wouldn't even show up -- they suspect Obama will sandbag them rather than focusing on Iran. Obama has barred the media from all major meetings -- no doubt he doesn't want Americans to hear what he's telling foreign leaders about us behind closed doors.
It would be comforting to say that President Obama is a victim of his own naivete and ego. There's no doubt he loves hearing from human refuse like Medvedev that he is "a thinker," unlike "other people" (read: George W. Bush). But there's more to it than simple ego appeasement. There is a disturbing anti-Americanism that animates Obama and his policies. Rev. Jeremiah Wright famously said, "God damn America." God doesn't have to. Obama's doing it for him.
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