Dealing with Russia

Europe is concerned that Obama’s approach to russia is weak

Transcript:

Remember when Ronald Reagan won the Cold War without firing a shot? When the Soviet Union collapsed and their empire in Eastern Europe spun out? When the Iron Curtain came down and the new states of Central and Eastern Europe were free to chart their own destinies?

Is President Obama’s so eager to ‘reset’ relations with Russia means that he will abandon those newly free countries to Russian expansion? Recently a group of former European leaders and intellectuals wrote an open letter to President Obama warning of just that.

These men are not crackpots or malcontents – they risked their lives to launch peaceful democratic revolutions in their own countries and triumphed over communist dictatorships. They are former Presidents and Prime Ministers of Central and Eastern European countries – Men like Nobel Laureate Lech Waleska of Poland, and the Czech Republic’s founder Vacel Havel.

They claim Russia is actively waging overt and covert warfare against them, using ‘energy blockades and bribery and political intimidation. And while they thank America for its role in liberating their countries from the Communist yoke in the 1980’s, they worry that if the United States does not continue to stand with them on the side of freedom, their countries will fall back into the sphere of Russian domination.

President Obama now faces a choice. During his recent visit to Moscow Obama offered to halt our missile defense shield in Poland and the Czech republic in exchange for Russian cooperation in stopping Iran’s nuclear program. The Russians said no, but Obama put a hold on the missile shield anyway, in hopes of currying favor with the Russians.

It didn’t worked before and it won’t work now. When the Russians asked President to halt Star Wars – the missile shield program of the 1980’s – he refused and held firm. Eventually they came around, agreed to our demands. President Obama would do well to recognize that we won the Cold War by our strength, not our weakness.