Alliances

The growing trend among conservatives to support Putin’s Russia is problematic because Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) engage in activities that run directly contrary to U.S. national security objectives, values of Western civilization writ large, and teaching of Christian scripture.

With the Middle East on fire, Europe on edge, Russia on the march, and China on the rise, America’s interlocking system of alliances is more important now than at any time since the beginning of the Cold War.

Franklin D. Roosevelt’s policy towards Russia depended on a willful disregard for the Moscow regime’s most brutal acts. The problem for the president—and for the American public—was that he seemed to believe the utterly false portrait of Stalin he helped to create.

As history reminds us, the security payoffs of a “Fortress America” approach are ephemeral and fleeting. Both the national interest and international security suffer when America turns inward.

Commentators have devoted lots of print comparing President Barack Obama to other presidents. But on foreign policy, let’s judge the president by placing his record against his own measuring stick.