John Bolton fisks Obama's Berlin speech
John Bolton writes in the LA Times (via Michelle Malkin) and points out how Barack Obama's forgetting some important lessons from the Cold War, a battle that may be coming back:
Obama explained that the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Europe proved “that there is no challenge too great for a world that stands as one.”Read the rest of the article, which is very good. Of course, like I said, the chances of the Cold War returning are very likely, if you consider Vladimir Putin's subtle grasp on Russia these days, for example. That's why the important question must be - how to put an end to the new Cold War, perhaps before it even begins?
Perhaps Obama needs a remedial course in Cold War history, but the Berlin Wall most certainly did not come down because “the world stood as one.” The wall fell because of a decades-long, existential struggle against one of the greatest totalitarian ideologies mankind has ever faced. It was a struggle in which strong and determined U.S. leadership was constantly questioned, both in Europe and by substantial segments of the senator’s own Democratic Party. In Germany in the later years of the Cold War, Ostpolitik — “eastern politics,” a policy of rapprochement rather than resistance — continuously risked a split in the Western alliance and might have allowed communism to survive. The U.S. president who made the final successful assault on communism, Ronald Reagan, was derided by many in Europe as not very bright, too unilateralist and too provocative.
Labels: Europe, political corruption, United States
