Sorry to say, the fact that our president has no spine — and that this is well-known on the world stage — is no longer news. And yet, each glaring example of this painful fact nonetheless continues to stun.
As is the case with the phone call President Obama had today with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Pause for a moment and ask yourself, what ONE thing do you think might have been at the top of the president’s list to discuss with his Russian counterpart? Anyone think the buzzing of a U.S. warship by Russian planes last week might have risen to the top? Or, heck, even been brought up at all in Obama’s call with Putin?
Yeah, me too.
Nope.
But don’t worry, I’m sure there’s a very good explanation for this. Wait, what?
The Hill elaborates:
President Obama spoke by phone on Monday with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss a series of thorny international issues.
But Obama did not raise the issue of Russian military jets buzzing a U.S. Navy ship last week in the Baltic Sea.
The two leaders had a “rather intense discussion” about the civil war in Syria and Russia’s intervention in Ukraine, according to White House press secretary Josh Earnest.
“That did not come up in the call between the two presidents,” Earnest said when asked about the jets. Such incidents are “destabilizing” but “not particularly unusual,” he added.
Two Russian planes took several low passes over the USS Donald Cook, raising eyebrows in the U.S. and prompting new concerns about Russian aggression.
An American military defense attaché in Moscow last week registered a formal complaint with Moscow.
You might also recall that our tough-as-nails Secretary of State John Kerry said condemned the what was described as a “simulated attack” on the U.S. by Russian warplanes:
“We condemn this kind of behavior. It is reckless. It is provocative. It is dangerous. And under the rules of engagement that could have been a shoot-down,” the US secretary of state said in an interview with CNN Español and the Miami Herald.
“People need to understand that this is serious business and the United States is not going to be intimidated on the high seas … We are communicating to the Russians how dangerous this is and our hope is that this will never be repeated.”
Of course, as Col. West noted last week, this is just another in a series of affronts by Russian aircraft towards the United States.
Does the president view this little incident, which could have ignited an actual firestorm between the U.S. and Russia, as simply below his paygrade? More to the point, it’s precisely this type of serious international leadership that highlights, in the most painful and dangerous of ways, that President Obama is in way over his head. Hope is not a global leadership strategy.
Putin’s Russia continues to poke us in the chest to see how we will respond. With Obama, he keeps getting nothing. As Col. West said of the situation,
…The enemy keeps poking you in the chest until you take an action. We appear neutered and my concern is that this will only escalate until, as they say, someone gets hurt — and I don’t want that someone to be an American.
