LYNCHBURG, Virginia - Democrat Barack Obama scolded Russia again on Wednesday for invading another country’s sovereign territory while adding a new twist: the United States, he said, should set a better example on that front, too.
The Illinois senator’s opposition to the Iraq war, which his comment clearly referenced, is well known. But this was the first time the Democratic presidential candidate has made a comparison between the U.S. invasion of Iraq and Russia’s recent military activity in Georgia.
“We’ve got to send a clear message to Russia and unify our allies,” Obama told a crowd of supporters in Virginia. “They can’t charge into other countries. Of course it helps if we are leading by example on that point.”
Foreign policy has become a dividing line in the race for the White House.
Obama favors a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq over 16 months, while John McCain, his Republican rival for president, opposes a timeline and says U.S. forces must stay to finish and win the war.
McCain, an Arizona senator, sought to highlight his foreign policy credentials during the Russia-Georgia crisis last week, giving a series of harsh statements directed at Moscow soon after the conflict began.
Obama, who was on vacation in Hawaii, followed suit with statements that became sharper over time.
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Obama’s take on the Georgia crisis was enough to convince me that his foreign policy would be akin to that of Neville Chamberlain in 1938 - and we all know how that panned out. History has proven time and time again that soft talk and appeasement doesn’t work in the face of genuine aggressors. Obama seems to have his heart in the right place, but he doesn’t seem to understand how the real world works. Obama is showing himself to be terribly naïve. His message of hope is inspiring, but in the end, his naive policies could very well bring the United States (and the rest of the western world) to its knees.
When Neville Chamberlain stepped off the plane after his meeting with Hitler, the British public hailed him as a visionary and a hero, chanting “peace in our time!” A year later, after Hitler had gobbled up two more countries, the world was plunged into the most devastating war in human history.
I believe the current world landscape is a dangerous one. The next US president is going to have a lot of responsibility thrust upon their shoulders, and the decisions they make could quite literally alter the course of human history. We all need to be very, very deliberate and thoughtful when we cast our votes in November.
- Posted by Matthew AchesonBarack Hussein Osama shows the same attitude as Jimmy Carter: He never met a dictator he didn’t like.
- Posted by Kevin