The 2016 Lesson America Should Learn from the Ukraine Crisis

In the United States, when talk turns to who should be the Republican presidential standard bearer in 2016, comments settle in on Barack Obama's total lack of management skills and common wisdom concludes that the GOP candidate must be someone who has successfully managed a state - read that, a governor, whose agenda will be ending Obamacare, fixing immigration policy, leading tax reform and creating jobs. But, if we consider what is making Americans and most of the world uneasy today, it has nothing to do with illegal immigrants or incomprehensible income tax forms. And the rest of the world is already trapped in the "one size fits all" approach that is socialized medicine, so they don't even understand America's demand for a free market in medical services. ~~~~~ But, dear readers, what both Americans and the world are increasingly worried about is President Obama's foreign / world policy incompetence. It has caused the Shiite axis led by Iran to test the resolve of the US and its Sunni allies in Syria, Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bahrain, Yemen, Egypt and Libya, where it resulted in the destruction of a US diplomatic compound and the death of an American Ambassador and three others in Benghazi. It has caused Israel, for the first time, to disagree with an American President publicly. It has caused Iran to believe it can continue its march to nuclear weapon capability and has emboldened North Korea to threaten America with its fledgling nuclear arsenal. And, it has forced western Europe, unable to defend its territory without a US - NATO military presence and unified military goals, to seek to push its borders eastward as far as possible...to Ukraine on Russia's doorstep. ~~~~~ Barack Obama's foreign affairs incompetence, approaching indifference to the question of world stability based on American leadership to ensure human freedom, is the reason for the current conservative pummeling of President Obama -- *Mike Rogers, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee : "Putin is playing chess -- I think we're playing marbles....[Crimea] is the most important territory to Putin himself,....There’s an old expression that Russia without the Ukraine is a country and Russia with the Ukraine is an empire.” *GOP Senator Lindsey Graham : "We have a weak and indecisive president," and that "invites aggression. President Obama needs to do something." *Former National Security Director Michael Hayden : "We just can't pontificate and condemn Russian activity. The president has to put some measure of his prestige and political capital at risk in order to try to shape an outcome in the Ukraine that's going to be acceptable to all parties - and particularly acceptable to the Ukrainian people. You can't do that if you're not present for duty,....It's a very dangerous time..." *GOP Senator Bob Corker : "Vladimir Putin is seizing a neighboring territory, again, so President Obama must lead a meaningful, unified response with our European allies to bring an immediate halt to these provocative Russian actions, which threaten international peace and security." *Senate John McCain : "The Russian government has felt free to intervene militarily in Ukraine because the United States, along with Europe, has failed to make clear there would be serious, potentially irreparable consequences to such action....I call on President Obama to rally our European and NATO allies to make clear what costs Russia will face for its aggression and to impose those consequences without further delay.” McCain and Corker were among 12 bipartisan members of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee who sent a letter to Obama on Friday calling for tougher action against Russian intervention in Ukraine. ~~~~~ But, dear readers, just as the hourly pounding received by Obama at the hands of American political leaders and the world media were forcing the President to "do something - he sent Secretary of State John Kerry yo Kiev to offer moral support and a $1 billion aid package to a Ukraine fighting to fend off bankruptcy - it was again Vladimir Putin who controlled the diplomatic chess game. He held a news conference at his home and talked tough, but he, not President Obama, cooled tensions, saying Russia has no intention "to fight the Ukrainian people" but reserved the right to use force. The message appeared to be one of cynical de-escalation : "It seems to me (Ukraine) is gradually stabilizing," Putin said. "We have no enemies in Ukraine. Ukraine is a friendly state." He also said that he had agreed to a NATO request that Russia attend a special meeting to discuss Ukraine on Wednesday in Brussels, opening up a possible diplomatic channel. World markets regained much of Monday's losses, shooting higher on tentative signals that the Kremlin was not seeking to escalate the conflict. But the overall thrust of Putin's comments was a warning that Russia was willing to use "all means at our disposal" to protect ethnic Russians in Ukraine. And, if you believe, as I do, that international political relationships contain their own internal logic - that the march of world affairs follows the signposts put up by past actions and interactions - then we can say together that the Ukraine crisis is the result of Obama's 2009 Cairo speech telling the world that America would take a lesser world leadership position, followed by being reluctantly dragged into Libya by France, by avoiding the chance to guide Egypt's reformation, by drawing the vanishing red line over the use of chemical weapons by Syria's al-Assad regime, and by the total acquiescence in, and cover-up of, the sacking of the Benghazi diplomatic compound and the assassination of Ambassador Chris Stevens. ~~~~~ Oh, yes... about what we need in the 2016 GOP presidential candidate...put successful foreign affair experience at the top of the list, because if America lets slip its hold on world leadership, Obamacare and immigration and jobs will not matter all that much. The list is short. Rumsfeld and Gingrich are too old. There is John Huntsman, but although he is a conservative, he is seen as an "establishment" Republican not favored by the tea partiers. But Huntsman is a solid Secretary of State candidate. That leaves Mitt Romney, whose 2012 remarks about Russia have proved prophetic. It leaves General McChrystal. It leaves Condoleezza Rice, the youngest of the Bush triumverate, a solid foreign affairs veteran who could dress down Hillary Clinton's fake foreign affair "credentials." This should be first on every GOP to-do list - find the candidate who can repair and advance America's position worldwide.