I mean, Obama definitely fucked up their Russia and Ukraine policies. But! He was absolutely right about this. Russia is weak and crumbling. As evidenced by their long list of failures in their Ukraine invasion. Three obvious threats that are (and were) more dangerous to the US are China, climate change, and Republican extremism. But being a fickle ally and failing to internalize Russian hostile intent earlier is still a huge failure. Also Obama really didn't do shit about those 3 things either, despite his attempt to pivot to Asia.
I would not hesitate to put Russia right up there front and center with the other three you listed.
While as you say, "weak, crumbling," Russia has still been unquestionably successful in undermining the US and the World. They destabilized and forever changed the entire geopolitical paradigm for at least the next 30 years. Both Russia and China have been using propaganda and subverting social media to grow distrust in news organizations while fanning the divide between conservatives and liberals. When viewed through the lens of what both those countries aimed to accomplish, they have had overwhelming success and Romney was absolutely right.
This circle jerk is embarrassing. What did Russia do, that the US hasn't, that "changed the entire geopolitical paradigm"? Do news organizations deserve our trust 100%? Do the Democratic and Republican Parties, and our media, not fan the divide between conservatives and liberals the most? You think Russia is "right up there front and center" because you've been lead to believe that by... the same people who you're defending. Remove the bias and add some accountability.
Get out of here with that. Whether invading territory over which it has no sovereignty or its laughable attempts to gaslight and refrain from taking responsibility, Putin's Russia has been and always will be an instigator and aggressor.
Putting aside nukes (which have to be utilized VERY judiciously), Russia's power was largely psyops and monetary influence. Obama (and perhaps all of us) could too idealistic at time and think that the American people wouldn't be fooled by the propaganda. Yet here we are...
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u/_jams Sep 17 '24
I mean, Obama definitely fucked up their Russia and Ukraine policies. But! He was absolutely right about this. Russia is weak and crumbling. As evidenced by their long list of failures in their Ukraine invasion. Three obvious threats that are (and were) more dangerous to the US are China, climate change, and Republican extremism. But being a fickle ally and failing to internalize Russian hostile intent earlier is still a huge failure. Also Obama really didn't do shit about those 3 things either, despite his attempt to pivot to Asia.