There is an old expression, I have no idea where it came from, that, "When America has a strong President, the world is a safer place." Right now, America has a popular President, but a President who is not seen as a strong President by the world. There are dangers to having a president who is considered weak by our enemies. Russians in the 1960's perceived John Kennedy as being weak and gave us the Cuban missle crisis as a result of that belief, Al Qaeda perceived Bill Clinton as a weak President in the 1990's and bombed embassies, the World Trade Center, and the USS Cole without fearing serious payback. Now we are seeing some of the result of the world's evaluation of the Obama Presidency.
It was not widely reported in the American news, but according to the American Thinker:
It is somewhat alarming that President Barack Obama sent heavily armed destroyers to the scene of the naval standoff between the US and China at the weekend and very few of our news outlets covered it. It was mentioned on Fox News and in the Washington Post, but the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times did not bother to report it. If you are looking for details of the confrontation, I suggest the foreign press links cited in the American Thinker article.
Meanwhile back at the ranch, Russia is talking about putting bomber bases in Venezuela and Cuba. This is being reported at Breitbart.com. I believe this is contrary to the principle of American foreign policy laid out in President James Monroe's message to Congress on December 2, 1823, (the Monroe Doctrine) calling for an end to European intervention in the Americas. The Monroe Doctrine was cited during the Cuban Missle Crisis as one of the reasons Russia had to remove its missles from Cuba. It will be interesting to see if President Obama is willing to uphold this doctrine.
Just for the record, on October 28, 1962, Khrushchev agreed to Kennedy's demands to withdraw the missiles, after Kennedy promised not to invade Cuba. Kennedy also secretly undertook to dismantle US missile bases in Turkey (a US ally that bordered the USSR). However, this was not made public, so most Americans believed that the USSR was forced to back down solely because of US military pressure. On November 2, 1962, Kennedy announced that Soviet missile bases in Cuba were being dismantled. Because Khrushchev considered Kennedy a weak President, Russia could not be forced to withdraw its missles unless we dismantled our US missle bases in Turkey. This is what happens when the world perceives the American President as weak. Some of Europe may not have liked George Bush, but at least his strength kept us all safe.
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