Consider it a pattern — President Obama speaking to a friendly crowd, papering over his failures of leadership while patting himself on the back for a job well done. He did that today in Toledo, Ohio, where he touted his auto industry bailout to United Auto Workers at a Chrysler plant, without directly addressing the morning’s news that unemployment went up to 9.1 percent in May as the economy hit a near standstill. Obama’s explanation about the slow-mo economy? “There are always going to be bumps on the road to …
When President Ronald Reagan stood before the Brandenburg Gate in West Germany and famously demanded that Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev “Tear down this wall!” he brought to Europe—and indeed the world—America’s conviction that freedom and democracy are a powerful liberating force whose time had come for those living under communist oppression. By contrast, as President Barack Obama travels throughout Europe this week and meets with U.S. allies, including the United Kingdom and Poland, he brings with him the baggage of his presidency—more than two years of a foreign policy that …
Recently, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov stated that Russia might withdraw from New START—the strategic arms control agreement between the Russian Federation and the United States that entered into force on February 4—if the United States does not provide Moscow with a legally binding guarantee that the European Phased Adaptive Approach (the Obama Administration’s plan for protection of Europe) will not be targeted against Russia. This is probably not what Lieutenant General Patrick O’Reilly, director of the Missile Defense Agency, had in mind when he testified about New START …
As NATO gears up for its summit in November, one of the top agenda items for discussion is missile defenses — namely, whether NATO will make it a core mission and how the alliance can cooperate with the United States in building a transatlantic missile defense umbrella. The Obama administration’s approach to missile defense is two-fold — much the same approach as the Bush administration. President Obama is talking to nations bilaterally about hosting U.S. facilities such as radar and interceptors, which he wants to build up in several phases. …
In the past week, military excursions into the tribal regions of Pakistan targeted Islamist militants believed to have connections to a number of plots designed to strike at the European mainland. As more evidence comes to light, it becomes clearer that Islamist militants have been preparing to hit “soft” targets in and around Europe, in a manner and fashion similar to the coordinated attacks in Mumbai in 2008. While the United States appears to have avoided the target lists associated with this latest round of threats, it would be foolish …
In 2007, the director general of Britain’s internal security service described al-Qaeda and its associated groups as, “the main national security threat that we face today.” Revelations that al-Qaeda linked terrorists planned to carry out Mumbai-style attacks in Germany, France and Britain once again underscores this fact. The capture and interrogation of a German national returning to Europe from a Pakistani training camp revealed a fledgling plan to terrorize European cities through murderous shooting sprees. Through a series of attacks and attempted attacks, Islamist extremists have declared war on Europe …
Bruno Lete’s analysis of European reactions to the New START treaty is breathtaking; not for its insights, but rather for its intrinsically false assumptions. Assumption #1: New START can and should lead to another agreement on the denuclearization of Europe. It is impossible—not to mention foolhardy—to ask U.S. senators to support New START in order to get to a second treaty of greater importance of Europe—namely the removal of c. 200 U.S. tactical nuclear weapons stationed in Europe. The U.S. Constitution empowers the Senate to offer its advice on and …
Just what Kool-Aid are they drinking in the White House? The question is occasioned almost daily now, but today’s issue isn’t Afghanistan, the oil spill, or health care reform. The Kool-Aid question arises today in the antics leading up to the upcoming G-20 meeting in Toronto. According to press reports, Obama is pressing Europe to focus more on sustaining their deficit spending rather than debt reduction. Germany, Europe’s de facto bailout banker-in-chief, has essentially responded, “Are you nuts?” Wolfgang Schauble, Germany’s Finance Minister diplomatically told reporters in Berlin, Nobody can …
You can’t argue with success – or can you? Newly released international opinion polls of the image of the United States bring the good news that global publics continue to view the American president and United States as a country in a favorable light. The question that has to be asked, though, is whether this improved image is a result of a perceived new direction in American foreign policy – the Obama Doctrine –which could end up weakening American leadership as the sole remaining superpower and American national security. According …
The European economic model is dead. Don’t believe us? – Ask The Washington Post. Yesterday’s front-page story reported that the loans being made to stave off the debt crisis come with conditions which, if enforced, would require “European governments [to] rewrite a post-World War II social contract that has been generous to workers and retirees but has become increasingly unaffordable for an aging population.” There is an obvious and painful connection to the U.S. and our economic direction. Unless we adopt a much better set of economic policies, the American …
