Peggy Noonan is being whipped for saying Obama is weak and helped bring about Russia's forcible annexation of the Crimea and invasion of the Ukrainian mainland. That's in part because people are terrified of being found outside their pew and at risk for being tarred as "hawks" or "neo-cons."
The reality is that Obama is weak, but in my view, it's actually a very sturdy position of his, predicated on his accommodationist view of Russia from his early days in DSA and alliance with socialist movements in the "community-organizing" sphere. This accommodationism continues, not only by inertia or indecision but by heavy ideological design, i.e. to see Russia as a "progressive" force if not for any reasons of communist ideology any more, but by merely serving as a fulcrum in the world against American "imperialist" interests.
This is why I didn't vote for Obama a second time, and why we all need to work to ensure that the next president of the United States is nothing like him, and not a project captured by Organizing for Action which will be the vehicle for his putting his person into power next (they grabbed all the mailing lists and social media data from Democrats who voted for Obama in the previous incarnation, Obama for America.)
Meanwhile, we can all pressure Obama to do more on Russia. I'm not going to comment now on which arms talks should be suspended, if at all, or what additional military might should be created or extended or deployed, ships at sea and the like but all that has to be looked at.
I'll just comment on the things that I think are doable in the humanitarian/social/political sector:
o Get the new ambassador to Moscow deployed as quickly as possible, and make sure he is not Jack Matlock or anything like Jack Matlock. My choice would be Strobe Talbot, who is liberal and whose views I haven't always liked on Russia, but who has been consistently a critic of Putin and not a Realist (which - let's be clear --- really involve Magical Thinking about self-interest that implies that it is based on reality, or that it is a reality we have to bless -- we don't.) I can't stress enough that the person in this job has to be Foreign Service, Russian-speaking ideally, and not a political appointee. Formal diplomatic experience and seriousness need to come to the fore in this position as they've been missing with McFaul. I honestly can't think of anybody else but am open to suggestions.
o Restore/increase aid to Russian studies. This is one of the more short-sighted moves of recent years, but I'll add this: more should indeed be done to examine what it is we fund. There's an awful lot of awfulness in this field for historical and current reasons. I'm not for injecting new life into the International Relations Realist school for Eurasia unnecessarly, and unfortunately, that's much of what we have in this field. But with a new generation coming of age with more visibility of the evils of the Kremlin, maybe this is fixable.
o Increase educational and exchange opportunities for Russians/Eurasians, but keep a weather eye on this. A Kyrgyz journalist keeps asking me if I think there is a chill now on Eurasian exchange due to the tangential participation of some Kazakhs in the Tsarnaev's plot to blow up Boston, and Kyrgyzstan's remote role in once having given the Tsarnaevs passports. The answer is -- no. Things don't work that way.
But I do think that a key factor in the undermining of national security -- long-term, and deep -- is the profound bias and ignorance in the minds of Eurasians to the effect that bin Ladn is a good thing or created by America, or that America kills the most people in the world, or that America is most responsible for deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq. These are insane, ahistorical, and ignorant views completely defying reality, and we need to say so loudly, frequently, and officially. I'd like to see a "10 Fictions" post go up on state.gov. I'm not kidding. It is a serious driver of hatred and even terrorism, and it's time to fight back on this.
All of these claims are outright Kremlin-inspired and fueld lies, replicated through zillions of leftist and anti-war web sites, and we need to combat this as part of the educational exchange effort. Participants shouldn't just be funded and allowed to wander into Marxist professors' classes and join Occupy but should get some engagement. Also, life is about choices. You should have the data base necessary to weed out people like the "golden youth" sons of Kadyrov's friends.
o The counter-propaganda effort has to be expanded by continued/expanded funding of RFE/RL and VOA, by increased efforts to create Internet TV channels
o Now's the time to review RT.com in America and also Migranyan's Institute for Human Rights in New York (if USAID is kicked out of Russia, why does this Kremlin propaganda arm get to persist in NY?). For civil rights and free enterprise reasons, we shouldn't ever stop American citizens' view of even a bad foreign TV station on the Internet, or the right of cable companies to chose Kremlin propaganda if that sells for them. And keeping the right of Americans to chose to work for bad TV companies abroad is also likely sacrosanct. But we're not required to issue visas to the management and journalists from Russia -- that is at the State Department's discretion.
o Restored/increased funding to NED, Freedom House and similar organizations willing to take government funds to conduct such programs as they can manage to conduct in and around Russia and the region.
o Work with Europeans, particularly Poles, Czechs, Balts, etc. to strengthen alternative broadcasting and civil society programming for Russia, which is part of strengthening their own freedom.
o Review whether it's time to suspend/end/severely revise Russia's role at NATO in the Partnership for Peace and in the Nato-Russia Council. It was a very different era when Foreign Minister Kozyrev signed the PfP agreement in 1994. At the very least, maybe some of the spies holed up around the Russian Mission to NATO could be expelled.
o End the Russian-American commissions started under Obama I. They bring nothing, and only confer legitimacy. Meetings can be scheduled on strictly-defined topics as needed. The commission - which only gives legitimacy to Russia -- should not be propped up.
o The Magnitsky List should be expanded robustly and swiftly also taking into account the bad actors in the Crimea and Ukraine from Russia or sustained by Russia. End the classified nature of the Magnitsky List which isn't about enabling more effective freezing of accounts but is about enabling Obama's accommodationism.
o Ban Ki-Moon has this new program at the UN called "Rights Up" which is actually a revival of Kofi Annan's Mainstreaming Rights -- and will likely have as little effect on the Eurasian cadres that obstruct progress in all UN programs and missions, which is really the problem, not lack of "awareness."
But it's not so terrible to in fact raise consciousness, so we should support it, and more to the point, create a "Heads Up" in all our own government bodies. Everybody who has anything to do with Russia/Eurasia needs to be re-aligned to Cold War standing. I'm not kidding. We have a fierce and ruthless enemy that became that enemy despite the best of Obama's accommodationism and even unilteral gestures like removing the Czech radar stations. It's more than fine to ask people to stop enabling Russian badness. That is really what it is about. To cease the enabling of this evil. That means exchanges with Justice Ministry officials should not be happening in any form. That means people invited on various programs should be challenged. It means that in whatever silly government program you are in anywhere, you need to be helping the Russian opposition, not Putin. It means having morality and common sense, not idiocy. Is it too much to ask?
o Review and adjust the Department of Homeland Security, FBI, etc. cooperation with Russia. We don't get much out of this. Remember, we didn't get a heads up on the fact that Tsarnaev was meeting with people that the Russian forces themselves assassinated in the summer of 2012. When were they going to tell us this?! The entire leaky boat of these exchanges needs to be patched and maybe sailed away, I don't know. But it's not helping.
o Articulate loudly the intention to prosecute Snowden, the demand that he be returned, and the implications for relations if Germany or any other state gives him political asylum. For that matter, asks why Germany continues to provide shelter to Jacob Appelbaum, Laura Poitras and Sarah Harrison. If the US government has no investigation or reason to press charges against Appelbaum and Poitras, it should publicly indicate this -- the same for Glenn Greenwald. It's time to end the propaganda bonanza these people enjoy by invoking their status as America's "victims of persecution." Either they are or they aren't -- clarify this. Wrapping up the grand jury on WikiLeaks also seems paramount.
o Close Guantanamo, bring the prisoners to a mainland prison where there are extensive civil liberties monitors, try them as quickly as possible, or release those who can be received abroad where they will not face torture. Publicize to the maximum the refusal of West European governments to receive these prisoners. Publicize to the maximum the recent arrest of Mohammed Begg by UK authorities in an investigation about fighters in Syria. For too long, Guantanamo has been a black eye for America, and it's time to publicize the difficulties with healing this black eye.
That should be enough for starters!
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