“The Russian media see in this the hand of the US State Department.
Because no one has told the Russians about our State Department.”
HA!
Yeah.
I know. I am not likely to praise Obama for anything he did, — which isn’t much even if one is aligned with his objectives — but this thought has occurred a number of times to me: whatever man, thinker, and ideologue Obama is, the office of the Presidency shaped him. Not entirely, but it shows a discernible mark on his presidency. In his treatment of the Ukrainian crisis Obama has not been perfect, but he was nevertheless presidential and he exercised leadership in NATO. It is rather obvious that without his pressure the West Europe flank of NATO would just have collapsed.
The reason the resurgent USSR 2.0 appears yielding its main objective: the creation of a land corridor to Transdnistria and incorporation of Luhank-Donbass to the Russian Federation — is, in great part, because the US has stuck to its guns on Ukraine.
Given the shameful sellout of Cuba by the same Obama, I expected less on Ukraine, and I am happy to report, I was not totally disappointed: even with Obama in charge, America remained America.
Which opens a way to the following question:
Are American institutions fundamentally solid? Not solid still, not solid in part, but solid enough to resist a 8-year-long ideological assault likely to continue?
The Supreme Court will soon tells us if it is a court or a jester show. If it is to rule on the constitutionality of the gay “marriage”, then soon thereafter the court will be another institute of bureaucratic oppression, not much different from the DMV: except the courts jail people and jailed people we then would be. Then, whatever corrective power, existed over even the presidents we dislike, will be gone and it won’t be restored. Then, the gains of the foreign policy and the gains of the military muscle will remain infertile. Probably, the institutions of the leftwing state will be hostile then, and the cooperation of the conservative institutions with the institutions controlled by the government should seize.
Yet so far, the management of the Ukraine theater is — not adequate, but — satisfactory. My fear is that Putin will escalate the tension and begin to issue threats. NATO is likely to fold to those.
But alarmist I am not. Pray.