Continued..........
This was the year Mr. Obama semi-resolved our differences with Vladimir Putin by giving Russia’s president whatever he wants. While sanctions on Russia remain in place, thanks to its 2014 aggression in Ukraine, Mr. Obama has done nothing substantive to help Kyiv, while deterring Russian moves in Eastern Europe remains more a Pentagon PowerPoint aspiration than detectable American policy. That Mr. Obama views Mr Putin as a partner, not a rival, much less an enemy, despite barrages of increasingly vulgar indications from the Kremlin that Enemy Number One is exactly how Moscow views us, was evidenced by his letting Mr. Putin have a free hand in Syria this year. In truth, Mr. Obama outsourced our Syria policy to the Kremlin way back in the summer of 2013, when he disregarded his own “redline” there, so permitting Mr. Putin to do whatever he likes in Syria—for instance deploying an expeditionary force that claims to be fighting ISIS but whose obvious intent is propping up the Assad regime, which Mr. Obama claims to want to be rid of—at least is consistent. Of course, if Mr. Obama planned to just let Mr. Putin do whatever he wants in Syria, the civil war could have ended over two years ago, saving tens if not hundreds of thousands of innocent lives. But the White House doesn’t seem too concerned about any of that, and it’s so ardent to play nice with Mr. Putin that it quashed a tiny State Department effort to counter noxious Russian propaganda aimed at the West. Say what you want about sucking up to Mr. Putin, at least it’s an Ethos.
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