LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Russia, China see Obama, U.S. as weak

OPINION:

While President Obama has put our national defense on the chopping block, Russia and China have increased their military spending and buildup of armed forces.

Since Mr. Obama became president, Russia has done the following: Held joint exercises with anti-American Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s navy off the coast of Venezuela; threatened to put nuclear bombers in Cuba and sent the destroyer Admiral Chabanenko through the Panama Canal to dock at our former Rodman Naval Base.

Communist China now controls the Panama Canal, along with our former military bases there, and is increasing its presence throughout the Caribbean and Latin America. From Panama, it controls passage of at least one-third of the world’s shipping. China can now use its strategic position to spy on the United States while we have lost the best strategic bases from which to track and capture terrorists.

Instead of defending America, Mr. Obama has sunk this country into trillions of dollars of debt, which in large part is owned by the Chinese. Hostile Russian and Chinese leaders see a United States in retreat under a weak president they believe will fold under pressure. Recently the Russians announced that they could withdraw whenever they pleased from Mr. Obama’s New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START). The Chinese recently insulted Mr. Obama by launching a new stealth fighter-bomber during an official state visit by Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates. Most recently, our commander in chief sent our armed forces into combat in Libya, an expedition that costs taxpayers $10 million a day and is done not on the authority of our Congress, as our Constitution requires, but rather on the direction of the United Nations, the Arab League and the international community’s leftist governments.

According to open sources and polls, the American people regard incursions by the Russians and Chinese (along with their proxies) around the globe as a serious menace. During his more than two years in office, Mr. Obama has shown China and Russia that they have nothing to fear and everything to gain from his weak U.S. policy. Luckily, it finally seems there are many Americans who will not stand for more sacrifice of national defense and sovereignty along with wasteful, big-government overspending.

LT. COL. DOMINIK GEORGE NARGELE

U.S. Marine Corps (retired)

Arlington