Obama tries to reset reality by dismissing Russia as a 'regional power' -- By Charles Hoskinson, The Washington Examiner

President Obama lives in a world where the truth in international affairs is defined by the sound of his voice.

"Russia is a regional power that is threatening some of its immediate neighbors not out of strength, but out of weakness," he said Tuesday's at a nuclear security summit in The Hague when asked if his 2012 opponent, Mitt Romney, had been right in describing Russia as the "number-one geopolitical foe" of the U.S.

"They don’t pose the number-one national security threat to the United States," Obama said. "I continue to be much more concerned when it comes to our security with the prospect of a nuclear weapon going off in Manhattan, which is part of the reason why the United States, showing its continued international leadership, has organized a forum over the last several years that’s been able to help eliminate that threat in a consistent way."

But here in the real world, where the rest of us live, it's not that simple.

As I wrote last week, Romney was right. Russia's geopolitical threat to U.S. interests clearly showed itself when Moscow violated a written agreement and seized Crimea from Ukraine. Even if the tens of thousands of Russian troops now massed on Ukraine's borders stay put, Crimea alone should have been enough to wake up a serious leader.

But Obama's approach to foreign policy is not serious. He prefers glib pronouncements and snark to soothe gullible reporters and voters over actions that may prove to be politically risky. Phrases like "the tide of war is receding" slip easily off his tongue, then disappear down the memory hole when people point out that the only place on the globe where such a thing is true is in his imagination.

Dismissing Russia as a "regional power" ignores the many ways in which the Obama administration depends on Moscow for meeting its policy goals, not just globally, but in space -- U.S. astronauts fly to the International Space Station on Russian rockets because NASA no longer has a means to get them there.

And the most important item on that list -- the one that cuts to the heart of Obama's fear of Manhattan turning to radioactive ash -- is nuclear security.

 (Click link below to read more)
READ MORE Sphere: Related Content