Jennifer Rubin: Obama admin “deeply naive and deeply cynical” on Russia
The Obama administration’s decision on missile defense, as with virtually every move the Obama team has made in foreign policy, is both deeply naive and deeply cynical. It is naive in conceiving that our adversaries simply must respond to our apologies, retreats, reversals, and unilateral-disarmament efforts with some comparable gesture, as if they fear being thought ungracious or rude if they don’t reciprocate in a timely manner. It conceives that Vladimir Putin will now find something meaningful to do for us, once relieved—thank goodness!—of the horrifying prospect that the U.S. might stand resolutely with our allies in Eastern Europe. It conceives that if we dare not speak up about the Iranian regime’s atrocities against its people, the regime will be more favorably disposed to discuss its nuclear program. It is a deeply flawed vision of the motives and interests of our adversaries. Whether it’s based on a misconception of the influence of Obama’s own persona or on other