Why are Improved Relations With Russia a Bad Thing?

There will be many discussions about the 2016 presidential election when time passes and we look at it less emotionally. Among them will be the horrible campaign run by Hillary, the cheating on the part of the DNC and the complete upheaval of the electorate and pre-conceived notions of how they would vote.

But the biggest discussion has got to be about Russia. The very same Russia that the Obama administration attempted to "reset" relations with and then botched it big time.




Or this memorable moment when Obama sounded like a lapdog to Medvedev:

Obama wanted nothing in the world more than to have good relations with Putin and Russia. He pulled missile defense out from Poland--a NATO ally--simply to placate the Russians and essentially turned a blind eye when Russia invaded the Crimea.

His own lack of negotiating skills and his chief foreign policy advisor, Hillary, made a mess of the situation.

And then things went south when Putin realized that Obama was a feckless leader who believed his very presence was enough to make the world bend to his ideas. The final straw was his inaction in Syria after drawing a red line (and then blamed our top ally for it). When Putin saw that he saw an advantage to go into assist Bashar Assad and also, and more importantly, give his military real-life experiences.

He also said the infamous words to Mitt Romney who saw exactly what Putin was doing. Oh how the media laughed over that pithy comment:



So here we are. The Democrats got smoked in the last election, they now have the least amount of power in decades nationally and they need to blame someone because liberals can never blame themselves or their ideology. So they blamed Russia and the media made them the new bad guy. They alleged that Trump colluded with the Russians and the highly politicized intelligence apparatus assisted as well.

Trump said he wants to work with Russia for the greater good and if the roles were reversed we'd see endless front page stories about what a good thing this is. But since it's Trump, they are using it to delegitimize him and his yet-to-begin presidency.

We need to work with Russia and we need to check their intentions, trump knows this since he's a deal maker. The U.S. having Russia as an enemy is a bad idea since they will be needed to maintain peace in the western Pacific and Asia. China is the real threat and the last thing we want is the outgoing president driving Russia to become friendlier toward their southern neighbor.

I don't trust Putin at all and never have but we need to work with him to solve the problems that exist between two super powers.

The actions of Obama recently with regard to Russia are as damaging as any lame duck president has ever left for his successor. By muddying the waters he has hurt our chances of finding a diplomatic settlement to the problems we face with Putin. These are real-world problems and the simple fact that Russia did not effect a single vote does not change anything. The problems exist and will continue to if we treat the as an adversary.

If Obama wants to hand Trump an impending NATO war in Europe, he's doing exactly that. It's important to note that Putin was actually the adult the last few weeks when he opted to not expel diplomats like Obama did. Putin is a businessman as well and he knows that Trump will do what he has to to protect his nation but also do what he needs to make the world (and Europe) safer. We have a common enemy in global jihadism and I for one would rather have the Russians fighting it with us versus against us.