Tag: Russia

Unwavering democratic doctrines will let US shape events again

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WASHINGTON — America’s top foreign policy to-do’s in 2014 include preventing Iran from reaching the nuclear threshold, addressing the humanitarian disaster in Syria, containing an expansionist Russia, managing a rising China and reclaiming its own voice on human rights. Let’s take these one at a time. Preventing a nuclear Iran: The global agreement over Iran’s …

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Washington reclaimed its voice at Kiev. Here’s hoping it doesn’t lose it again.

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Nearly a decade ago, President Bush provided important moral support to Ukraine’s “Orange Revolution,” criticizing the government after a fraudulent presidential election and pressuring officials to replace it with a fair one. President Obama, the quintessential anti-Bush, has generally eschewed the public promotion of human rights at moments of social ferment, believing the United States …

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Relax, America – we’ve been here before

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With all eyes in Washington focused on the government shutdown and possible default, policymakers and pundits may have missed what’s potentially the most consequential story of late – a Washington Post piece that catalogues the growing backlash against Tea Party Republicans in districts across the country. In West Michigan, business leaders are recruiting a primary …

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Russia, rotting from within, faces bleak future

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In his high-profile effort to “reset” U.S.-Russian relations, President Obama has sought not only to assuage Moscow’s concerns on issues like missile defense to win its cooperation on other U.S. priorities. He has gone out of his way to ratify Russia’s role as a great power, even letting Moscow reassert itself in the Middle East …

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New proposal for Syrian chemical weapons won’t produce anything good

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The growing focus, at home and abroad, on a proposal under which Bashar al-Assad would subject his chemical weapons to international control seems an all-too-fitting next step in the clumsy U.S. effort to punish the Syrian strongman for using those weapons against his own people, killing more than 1,400 of them in late August. The …

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U.S. Credibility Already In Tatters Over Syria

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The congressional debate over whether to support President Barack Obama’s call for military action against Syria will revolve around the issue of “U.S. credibility,” but here’s the sobering fact: U.S. credibility around the world has already taken a huge hit due to White House actions of recent weeks. Each day seems to add another wrinkle …

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White House undercuts its professed steadfastness in very public ways

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The public run-up to all-but-certain U.S. military action in Syria in response to the al-Assad regime’s chemical weapons usage is undercutting the very message that President Obama feels compelled to deliver. For starters, Administration officials continue to say that the President still has not made a final decision on whether to respond forcefully – despite …

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