A few years ago, Russia seemed to be in a death spiral. The US was in great shape, and our word was known and it was true. Then came 9/11 and the wars, followed by meddling with financial markets and a global financial crisis.
Changes were needed, and Americans voted for change, and Barack Obama. The change they wanted was to improve the standing of the US in the world, which, we were told, Bush had damaged.
It was expected that “the change” would be in the positive direction. It wasn’t.
According to former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton, on Fox News’ “On the Record with Greta Van Susteren,” the Cold War may soon be with us again. Bolton warns that Ukraine rioting and Moscow’s interference in that country may mark a resurgent rivalry between the United States and Russia.
Russia seeks to re-establish its hegemony over Ukraine. If that is successful, the Russians may try to claw back other former Soviet republics, especially if the West does not act, Bolton said.
“We have a lot riding on this, and we cannot count, as we have seen over the past year or so, on the European Union doing anything effective to stop the Russians from re-establishing their influence,” Bolton said.
Closer to home, anti-government protests in Caracas, Venezuela, are being blamed on the U.S.A., according to the new Venezuelan government. Hugo Chavez may be dead, but his attitude to the US remains. The Venezuelan government on Sunday expelled three U.S. consular officials.
Bolton warned that the US is asleep at the wheel of the bus, and said, “Friends of the United States, friends of liberty are out there trying to prevent their government from succumbing to autocracy. And the U.S. government is effectively silent and inactive.”
U.S. influence may not have been strong, after the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but things have changed for the wose, and US influence is slipping all over the world, especially in the Middle East. Bolton warned, “We will pay the price of this for a long time, unless people speak up.”
The Obama administration has only provided lip service thus far in the Ukraine and Venezuela situations. What more this country can do is considered to be very little, especially in far-away Ukraine.
Bolton was scathing in his assessment of the Obama White House. He said Russian President Vladimir Putin is “a man with a strategic vision and an autocratic mentality. In Obama we’ve got a weak, feckless, inattentive president who not only doesn’t know what America’s interests are, I don’t think he particularly cares about American national security. He’s devoted to transforming America domestically.”
Bolton’s words are not a bill of endorsement for the Obama White House, but Obama and democrats do not care.
Here is Bolton speaking about Syria, in which he says Obama is a do-nothing president, who only knows how to use rhetoric.
