Waning Obama Mooned by Russians

Many news and politics junkies are watching the clock run down on the Obama presidency. With much luck, the Democrats will fail in November, and this nightmare administration will be over. A recent poll in Israel shows that the media here are spinning Clinton and Trump as the most pro-Israel, while ignoring the evangelical Cruz. Not many here are fooled by Sanders, who bungled the Gaza death toll question and this week hired a bona fide BDS-touting 20-something as his Jewish outreach operative. However, if the Democrats succeed again—or perhaps even if they don’t—what is in the offing? The obvious answer is: more of the same.

Russian jets repeatedly buzzed an American destroyer in the Baltic Sea this Tuesday. The Russian Su-24s passed over the USS Donald Cook at a distance of only 30 feet (10 meters). The Wall Street Journal reported that the jets came with 75 feet (23 meters) of the ship. Either way, that was damn close.

The U.S. Navy was involved in a routine training exercise with Poland. The flyover incident began with a Russian ship trailing and presumably monitoring the destroyer, involved repeated flyovers by the Russian fighter jets, and was followed by helicopter flyovers as well. A Polish helicopter which attempted to take off from the deck of the U.S. destroyer had to abort its flight plans due to the flyovers.

One anonymous defense source quoted by the Daily Mail characterized the incident as “more aggressive than anything we’ve seen in some time”. While this particular incident was widely reported, it was not the only one this week. The Russians carried out another close call flyover and one at a safer distance. The jets were observed to be unarmed, but carrying intelligence-gathering equipment. According to Colonel Ralph Peters (ret.), an analyst with Fox News, these maneuvers allowed the Russians to monitor all U.S. signaling onboard in response to the aggressive approaches of the Russians.

As in the case of the Iranian takeover of the crew of a U.S. Navy crew in mid-January of this year, the U.S. response was totally passive. As CNN reported in January, during the capture and humiliation of the ten sailors, Obama ignored the incident, and pasted it over with hearts and flowers:

“We built a global coalition, with sanctions and principled diplomacy, to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran. And as we speak, Iran has rolled back its nuclear program, shipped out its uranium stockpile, and the world has avoided another war,” Obama said, in his only mention of Iran in his final State of the Union speech.

Washington is reportedly considering a protest regarding this week’s incident, but the failure to respond was another clear signal that the U.S. will do nothing to stop Russian aggression. The Russians and the Iranians are doing whatever they like, and it doesn’t look pretty.

On the other hand, in a major report on the current state of U.S. Marine Corps aircraft, Fox News reporters Lucas Tomlinson and Jennifer Griffin detailed the debilitated condition of naval aircraft. One squadron with fourteen aircraft has only two in operating condition, as only one example. Commanders are concerned and frustrated.

Budget cuts, replacement models in production delays, overworked mechanics, and old aircraft strained beyond their optimal retirement date all paint a picture of a military in decline. Paired with the consistently passive stance Obama has chosen, what do the Russians and Iranians have to fear from the administration that handed over the hegemony of Iraq and Syria to them? Not much apparently—in contrast to the Saudis, who have found Israel a more attractive country as Obama continues to throw them under the bus.

Iran apparently took delivery of the advanced Russian S-300 missile defense system [VIDEO] this week. Now it can continue its non-compliance with the unsigned Obama nuclear deal, the JCPOA. Iran will continue to test its nuclear delivery systems in vastly improved defense conditions that make pre-emptive strikes much more difficult, and make Iran a more likely nuclear threat.

The JCPOA is a toothless document that is not dissimilar from the non-prosecution agreements European governments made with terror organizations. In return for allowing terror organizations immunity from prosecution, terrorists agreed not to stage terror attacks in these host countries—unless they attacked Jews and Jewish institutions, which “didn’t count”. Now these European dealmakers are beginning to figure out that they too are infidels with targets on their backs.

If the Dems continue to hold the U.S. presidency, there is no reason to expect anything other than further deterioration. Even if a Republican succeeds in winning the election, it will take time until the U.S. succeeds in rebuilding equipment and morale.