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Politics : The Obama - Clinton Disaster -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: calgal who wrote (73848)	6/14/2012 4:25:32 PM
From: Hope Praytochange	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 103300

How's That Reset Button Workin' For Ya, Obama? Mideast: As Moscow tests a new ballistic missile, our secretary of state expresses concern that Moscow is sending attack helicopters to the murderous regime in Syria. The only thing changed is the degree of our naivete. On June 12, 1987, President Ronald Reagan spoke to the people of West Berlin at the base of the Brandenburg Gate, near the Berlin Wall, and uttered this famous demand: "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" A quarter-century later to the day, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the U.S. was "concerned about the latest information we have that there are attack helicopters on the way from Russia to Syria." Reagan spoke at the height of American exceptionalism and power and in unapologetic tones against a backdrop of a military and an economy second to none. Secretary Clinton's "concern" comes after three years of apologies, disarmament and appeasement. Reagan's words doomed an empire. Hillary Clinton's plea no doubt inspired a few chuckles. Russia has helped Iran with its nuclear program and air defenses as well as protected the country at the United Nations. It has a long-standing military relationship with Syria, which hosts Russia's only naval base on the Mediterranean Sea at Tartus. Its fondness for thuggish regimes is once again on display. There's some dispute whether Secretary Clinton was referring to new shipments of the MI-24 attack helicopters or to those Syria already has but has not yet deployed in its ongoing massacre of its own people to keep the murderous regime of Bashar Assad in power. While the MI-24s are flown by Syrian pilots, Russia supplies spare parts and provides maintenance for them. Some 13,000 people have been killed in the Syrian bloodshed. But that hasn't yet received the same level of response as the Obama administration had for Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, where we acted to prevent just such a slaughter. Syria, of course, has friends in both Moscow and Tehran. As we've written, Syrian thug Assad must go. Secretary Clinton's concern is well-founded, but we recall that last year, appearing on CBS' "Face The Nation," she dismissed the idea of U.S. military action or regime change in Syria, claiming that unlike Libya's Gadhafi, Assad was considered to be a "reformer" by "many of the members of Congress." It was the Obama administration that inexplicably made a recess appointment of Robert Ford to be ambassador to Damascus. We never understood Ford's appointment, the first U.S. ambassador to Syria after a five-year absence. President George W. Bush withdrew our ambassador from Damascus in 2005 after the bombing that killed former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in which Syrian involvement was widely suspected. Why did we reward a government that is still considered a state sponsor of terror, getting absolutely nothing in return? In March 2009, Clinton presented Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov with a red "reset button" to symbolize improved ties. But the gift drew smiles as the word "reset" was mistranslated into the Russian for "overcharge." Apparently something else was lost in the translation, as Russian attack helicopters find a home in Syria. Instead of a new era of cooperative equals, it marked a new era of appeasement in which President Obama would betray allies Poland and the Czech Republic on missile defense after Russia threatened to target these sites, a threat that stands to this day. On June 7, Russia announced a successful test of a new version of its Topol-M intercontinental ballistic missile, a version designed to counter U.S. missile defense systems. The Topol-M is a three-stage, solid-propellant, silo-based or road-mobile missile that can carry maneuverable warheads. This administration, despite scandalous leaks designed to further Obama's re-election chances by establishing his bona fides fighting terror and shameless chest-thumping, remains as incompetent on foreign policy as it is domestically. Forget the reset button. Press the one marked "panic."