By Ken Blackwell
Editors Note: This column was co-authored by Bob Morrison.
Secretary Hillary Clinton was at the Naval Academy recently. She went there to deliver a prestigious Forrestal Lecture. And she was well received by the 4000 Midshipmen and hundreds of students attending the Naval Academy Foreign Affairs Conference.
One Midshipman asked Sec. Clinton about the killing of Osama bin Laden. Hillary responded with poised professionalism. She crisply outlined all the steps that were taken and the vast complex operations that had to come together in time and space to bring success. She tells the story well. And interestingly she gives no hint of envy that it was Barack Obama who got to make that critical call not Hillary herself.
Well good for Hillary! It would be unchivalrous of us to deny Madame Secretary credit for the most praiseworthy act of the Obama administration. Even better she did not tell Pakistan. Recall the invertebrate Sec. of State Cyrus Vance. He reigned in protest from Jimmy Carters Cabinet in 1980--not because Carter failed to rescue our hostages in Iran but because he tried!
Sec. Clinton was also asked about Russias unhelpfulness and Syria. She replied:
Part of the difficulty is the change in leadership that is occurring in Russia. Vladimir Putin will assume the presidency very soon but hes not president yet. It appears that Medvedev will be appointed prime minister. Hes putting together a government but its not put together yet. So the Russians have a long-term relationship with the Assad family. They sell a lot of arms continuing to do so to the Assad regime. They use a port in Syria that has been made available to them for a number of years. So there are a lot of deep connections between Russia that go beyond whoever the leader is and Syria. So I think there will be a very rough couple of days in trying to determine whether we go to the Security Council seeking action knowing that Russia is still not on board but continuing to require them to have to either veto or abstain and see what we can try to bring about because were not going to give up. Were going to keep pushing for both humanitarian and strategic reasons.
It would be hard to imagine more errors in a single answer. Russias change of leadership? What change? Putin has been in charge since New Years Eve 2000. That has never been in doubt. The Obama administration made muchtoo muchof its closeness to Medvedev even giving the appearance of disrespect to Putin in the process. Thats like cozying up to the monkey in the hopes of showing up the organ grinder.
This is the same Russia whose foreign minister Sergei Lavrov Hillary famously gifted with a red Re-set" button on their first meeting. That was to signal the new administration in Washington wouldnt fuss about Russias 2008 aggression against the Republic of Georgia. Except that the Russian word for Re-set" was spelled wrong. And the writing didnt even use the Russian Cyrillic alphabet!
Worse the Obama administration abandoned missile defense for Poland the Czech Republic and Hungary. This was we were told to make Russia more amenable on such matters at the Iranian nuclear program. Since then the Russians pocketed Mr. Obamas concessions and have given us no help on Irans nukes. And on Syria Irans puppet? Dont even ask.
When the FBI collared ten Russian spies just days before an Obama-Putin hamburger summit" in the U.S. the spies were all kicked out. They were allowed to go home to Russia with no harsh interrogation. They didnt even get a TSA pat down. No wonder President Obama seemed not to notice that Dmitri Medvedev was eating his French fries.
Then there was the quickie ratification of the deeply flawed START treaty. Sec. Clinton and Vice President Biden helped push that one-sided measure through a lame-duck U.S. Senate in December 2010.
In every way imaginable this administration has telegraphedno tweetedits weakness to the Russians. Whatever else we know about Russians we know they respect the
vozhd. Thats the Russian word for boss." Based on our experience dealing with Russiansat the top and the bottom levelsthey respect strengthconstancy and firmness. Lets see some of it.
Bob Morrison served as a Russian interpreter aboard a Coast Guard cutter. He dealt with the Soviets about fish.
Ken Blackwell a contributing editor at Townhall.com is a senior fellow at the Family Research Council and the American Civil Rights Union and is on the board of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. He is the co-author of the new bestseller The Blueprint: Obamas Plan to Subvert the Constitution and Build an Imperial Presidency on sale in bookstores everywhere..
