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President Obama's Foreign Policy: The Empty Suit Strategy
Bluegrass Pundit ^ | April 10, 2010 | Bluegrass Pundit

Posted on 04/10/2010 5:41:38 AM PDT by Askwhy5times

So far, in order to appease the Russians, President Obama has pulled the missile shield for Eastern Europe, signed a START II nuclear armament reduction agreement and pledged to not use nuclear weapons, even in defense against a chemical or biological attack. In return, President Obama wants help from Russia to contain Iran's nuclear weapons ambition. Obama wants Russia to cooperate with the US and Western Europe by imposing stiff sanctions against Iran. How is that working out? Paul Mirengoff at Power Line Blog explains how President Obama's strategy is failing.

President Obama's "reset" of relations with Russia does not appear to have translated into Russian support for strong sanctions against Iran. According to the Washington Post, Russian President Medvedev has told Obama that there are limits to his country's support for sanctions.

What are those limits? According to the Post, sanctions must not create economic hardship for Iran, foment financial chaos, or lead to regime change. In other words, sanctions must not produce any result that might conceivably cause the Iranian regime to give up its quest for nuclear weapons.

Even if Russia and China would cooperate fully, which they won't, no amount of sanctions will deter rogue nations like Iran from pursuing their nuclear weapons ambition. We have nothing to offer them that is more valuable to them than a nuclear arsenal. Once they have nuclear weapons and long range delivery systems, they can extract almost anything they want from their neighbors and the West by using threats, fear and nuclear brinkmanship. The only thing that could possibly deter Iran from continuing down the road to developing nuclear weapons would be the certain knowledge of a devastating military attack if they don't desist.

(Excerpt) Read more at bluegrasspundit.com ...


TOPICS: Government; Politics
KEYWORDS: foreignpolicy; obama; strategy

1 posted on 04/10/2010 5:41:39 AM PDT by Askwhy5times
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To: Askwhy5times

President Obama’s “reset” of relations with Russia does not appear to have translated.One thing about Russia they know how to pull the big fish in.


2 posted on 04/10/2010 6:12:44 AM PDT by Vaduz
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