“The political situation in Europe is very uncertain at the moment,” [Drawsko Pomorskie] Mayor Zbigniew Ptak told the [American] troops. “So your presence here [in this Polish town] gives us a real sense of security.”Noting "how quickly [Vladimir] Putin has shredded the certainties of the post-Cold War era," Andrew Higgins reports on the threat to Europe of "surging Russian military activity redolent of East-West sparring during the Cold War" (Norway Reverts to Cold War Mode as Russian Air Patrols Spike, April 1).
Iraq, meanwhile, is staggering under the onslaught and massacres of ISIS and Al Qaeda, thanks at least partly to the U.S. troop pullout of 2011, which the White House accompanied with assurances that the Commander-in-Chief had "ended the war in Iraq." As for the Middle East writ large, signs point towards a regional nuclear arms race.
Who can truly say with a straight face that the world is a safer place in 2015 than in 2008? (Or that America is more respected, for that matter?)
All these events are on the watch of the man who, among other things, mocked Mitt Romney's assertion that Russia was the West's "No. 1 geopolitical foe" and who over the years has seemed to display more friendliness towards foreign leaders and despots — not least among them the Kremlin's overlords — than the opposition in America; to such a point that he was overheard telling Dmitry Medvedev just to wait out the next election, then he would have more flexibility after Romney was defeated (with help from the IRS).
Of course, this is explained by his far left upbringing, which claims to have a profound understanding of who America's—and the world's—true enemies are: those despicable U.S. capitalists and those clueless conservatives who for some incomprehensible reason have the gall to display doubt about Obama's forward-looking "hope'n'change" policies (domestic as well as foreign) aimed at "fundamentally transforming the United States of America."
Seven years ago, during the 2008 elections, I wrote in these very pages (Campaign Jousting, Letters, International Herald Tribune, Oct. 11, 2008) to warn against a repeat of the "fairy tale-type of foreign policy" that was ubiquitous under "Jimmy Carter's similar 'be-understanding-to-our-enemies and tough-on-our-friends' approach to foreign affairs." I take no pride in having been proven right.