The U.S. and Global Security Review - Blog by Michael Novakhov

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"His secretary of defense says, “The world is exploding all over”... Yet Obama’s reaction to, shall we say, turmoil abroad has been one of alarming lassitude and passivity... Indeed, insists the president, the real source of our metastasizing anxiety is . . . the news media... This passivity — strategic, syntactical, ideological — is more than just a reaction to the perceived overreach of the Bush years. Or a fear of failure. Or bowing to the domestic left. It is, above all, rooted in Obama’s deep belief that we — America, Christians, the West — lack the moral authority to engage, to project, i.e., to lead... All that’s left is to call it strategic patience." - Crusaders and appeasers - The Washington Post

February 13, 2015

Crusaders and appeasers - The Washington Post Friday February 13 th , 2015 at 5:10 PM Charles Krauthammer: Most Recent Articles And Archives 1 Share US President Barack Obama speaks before signing the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans Act, H.R. 203, in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, February 12, 2015. (Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images) His secretary of defense says, “The world is exploding all over.” His attorney general says that the threat of terror “keeps me up at night.” The world bears them out. On Tuesday, American hostage Kayla Mueller is confirmed dead. On Wednesday, the U.S. evacuates its embassy in Yemen , a country cited by President Obama last September as an American success in fighting terrorism. Yet Obama’s reaction to, shall we say, turmoil abroad has been one of alarming lassitude and passivity. Charles Krauthammer writes a weekly political column that runs on Fridays. View Ar

"In short, the deal is a bitter pill for Mr. Poroshenko. But he was right to accept it, and Ms. Merkel and Mr. Hollande were right to press it... What remains incontrovertible is that Ukraine is Mr. Putin’s war. Mr. Putin has been offered a far better deal than he deserves. Now it is imperative for the West to keep his feet to the fire..." - Making the Ukraine Cease-Fire Stick - NYT Editorial | "For now, the situation on the ground in Ukraine is paramount. If the cease-fire fails to gain traction in implementation, then a wider deterioration of the conflict may come into play." - Russia is Winner in Minsk Talks | "It's difficult. He is playing a dishonest and dirty game," says Poroshenko. "I know, I know, and everybody knew that," replies his interlocutor, Lukashenko. Poroshenko adds: "He plays that game everywhere"... For once, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is a bit-player in the drama. He seems in a good mood through the night, though he gives little away. "We've been invited to eat salo," he says at one point, jovially referring to salted pig's fat, a staple of traditional Ukrainian cuisine... "Hollande and Merkel were often in the role of listening, facilitators," a French delegation source said. "For Poroshenko and Ukrainians it was more painful, given the situation on the ground, although Putin and Poroshenko do not have a hostile relationship," the source said. - To Reach Ukraine Accord: High Diplomacy,' Dirty Games' and Pig's Fat - NYT

February 13, 2015

Making the Ukraine Cease-Fire Stick Friday February 13 th , 2015 at 3:38 PM 1 Share A “glimmer of hope” but “no illusion” was the inauspicious way Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, described the Ukraine cease-fire she and President François Hollande of France brokered in talks in Minsk, Belarus, with Presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia and Petro Poroshenko of Ukraine. Ms. Merkel certainly deserves a lot of credit for her determined shuttling among Kiev, Moscow, Munich, Washington and Minsk in the urgent search for a resolution of the biggest security crisis to confront Europe since the end of the Cold War. The last cease-fire negotiated in Minsk, in September, quickly unraveled, and the new one is very limited, leaving hard problems to be settled in coming weeks and months. And in the end, it is still for Mr. Putin to decide whether this is to be a real step toward peace or just another cynical feint in his campaign to dismember Ukraine.