So, the G20 summit in Hamburg Germany is over and we will now be inundated with analysis and assessments of the first meeting between Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. There has been so much built up about this engagement, which in my estimation went far too long. But, there is an overarching question that we need to answer, when did Russia become a threatening menace?
I remember the week that Obama Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel announced a massive reduction of our US Army and the intent to retire the US Air Force A-10 Warthog close air support platform. It was later that week that Russian-backed separatists and camouflaged militants overran Crimea. Now, one would have thought at that time Russia would have been perceived as a threat, nah. And then there was the blatant invasion by Russia of a sovereign Nation, Ukraine, and a subsequent shooting down of a civilian airliner by Russian paramilitary forces, using Russian equipment. Yet, President Barack Obama only sought to issue a terse statement, try to stare down Putin at summits, and send the Ukrainian Army socks, not weaponry.
Ok, so there were sanctions, but they have hardly damaged the Russian economy. What happened to the missile defense shield that was to be deployed in Poland, if Russia is such a menace?
If Russia is such a great threat, then why was it that President Obama in an off microphone moment, he thought, whispered over to then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that after his reelection, he would have more flexibility? Now, why would anyone want to have more flexibility with a Nation that is a threat? Then again, when in the final 2012 presidential election debate, it was Governor Romney who answered to Bob Schieffer that Russia was our greatest geopolitical adversary. Barack Obama ridiculed him stating that the 80’s was calling for its foreign policy back. And subsequently, it was future Secretary of State John Kerry, and others, who derided Romney for saying that Russia was a threat.
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Now we know that President Obama and his minions knew about the Russian hacking into the Democrat National Committee (DNC) website, along with John Podesta’s email – which any ten-year-old could have done. However, they did nothing to resolve the issue and the DNC allegedly refused to turn over the evidence to the DoJ…why? Were Russia, and Vladimir Putin, not a clear and present danger? a threat to our democracy?
So, rhetorically, I put forth the same question, when did Russia become a threat?
Simply answered, Russia became a threat when it served the progressive socialist left and their liberal progressive media allies’ purpose. With all that occurred under the tenure of Barack Obama, Russia was NEVER deemed a threat. Consider the collusion of the Obama administration with Putin and Russia over Syria, you know, the whole chemical weapons agreement. Did anyone find it rather odd that Bashar Assad recently fired chemical weapons on his own people? And, that John Kerry said, or rather the Russians told him, they had removed all the chemical weapons from Syria. Red lines, lines in the sand, no threat then, why now?
And didn’t Russia tell the Obama administration that they would be taking care of ISIS? Funny, we are not hearing much from the liberal progressive media about the retaking of Mosul from ISIS last week…they were not a threat either, just a Jayvee team. In North Korea, where was the liberal media decrying Obama’s policy of “strategic patience”, then again, North Korea was not a threat either.
This is all just bad hypocritical political Kabuki theater from the left, and sadly they are not being called out. Russia, ISIS, and North Korea have all become threats, because there is someone different calling the shots, someone that the liberal progressive left did not want sitting in the White House. Their silence during the reign of Obama is telling, they are willing to excuse any abhorrent behavior from their own. So now their expectation is that all of this has happened since January 20, 2017. The left has no recollection of all that preceded Donald Trump’s inauguration while Barack Obama was president.
Yes, as Mitt Romney stated, Russia was and is a geopolitical threat, but as long as the left was in power they would never admit such. If they had, the onus would have been on them to do something. So now, the left has created this menace, one they denied, and are attempting to pin the tail on an elephant, instead of the donkey which is wear this tail belongs. Barack Obama and the Democrats did, and have done, nothing, they knew what Russia, Putin, was and has been doing, yet they failed to take action. They failed because they wanted to assume no responsibility of action, so under their watch, we have seen the growing alliance of Russia and Iran…and Iran is not a threat either, hence why Obama sent them billions of dollars. Spare me the tired leftist argument that we owed the money to Iran. That arms agreement was made with the Shah of Iran. When the Shah was deposed in the Iranian Islamist revolution, by the Ayatollah Khomeini, that agreement was nullified.
Russia and Vladimir Putin are a threat, but it was obfuscated, denied, and dismissed for some eight years of the Obama administration. We need to stop acquiescing to the left about this issue, and sternly ask them, when did Russia become a threat?
The truthful response is, once they could use it for political advantage.
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