During the 2012 presidential election, Mitt Romney identified Russia as the biggest “geopolitical foe” to the United States, and President Obama, members of his administration, and the media maligned him for his “Cold War-era” foreign policy. Fast forward 18 months or so, and it looks like the Republican presidential nominee might have had the right idea…. But President Obama still doesn’t think so.
During a joint press conference with Prime Minister Rutte of the Netherlands yesterday, ABC News’ Jon Karl asked President Obama about the possibility U.S. influence and his personal influence on the world stage is declining. Furthermore, Karl asked the President if Romney was right when he characterized Russia as a geopolitical threat.
Karl lays out his question in the clip below:
Here the President addresses Romney’s past comments:
“He's just saying they are a regional power that doesn't have any threat to the west, and they're doing it from weakness… Think about it,” Glenn said exasperatedly. “I know this sounds like hyperbole, but anybody who knows anything about history, anything about the global dynamics… we're at the brink of World War III… I hope everything becomes stable here. But this literally could be the brink of World War III. What the hell is he talking about?”
Despite President Obama’s best attempt to sounds confident, no one is buying his assertion that Russia is nothing more than a regional power. While the purpose of such a remark is to make it seem as though Russia is acting from a position of weakness, it is clear that is not the case. Additionally, Russia’s nuclear arsenal is quite impressive, meaning there is a very real chance Russia could orchestrate President Obama’s worst fear of nuclear bomb stricking Manhattan.
“It's this idea they're not acting out of a position of strength. When the Soviet Union had all their nuclear weapons, many of them were in Ukraine. When it broke up, those weapons went back to Russia. So Russia has them. Ukraine doesn't,” Stu concluded. “And what do you mean a position of strength? They have all the strength. There's nothing anyone in the world can do to stop them. That's a position of strength.”
Front page image courtesy of the AP