OPINION:
President Obama’s live-mic remark to the Russian president was inexcusable (“Boehner to Obama: Clarify your hot mic comments to Medvedev,” Web, Wednesday). Mr. Obama already gave Russia what it wanted with the treaty he signed with the country, and now this? The two problem nations in the world are Iran and Syria, and who is their friend protecting them at the United Nations with veto threats? Russia, of course.
If it weren’t for Russia, Iran would not even be close to producing nuclear weapons. Russian technicians and equipment have put Iran on the verge of producing nuclear weapons, which is a proposition that most of the countries in the United Nations do not welcome. In addition, Russia has provided an air-defense system to Iran, which will inhibit any country from attacking its nuclear facilities.
Russia supplies services that violate current U.N. sanctions against Iran, like providing use of its banking system, and also helped block new sanctions against Iran. Then there is Syria, which in the past year has killed more than 9,000 of its own citizens and forced many more out of the country. Russia blocks meaningful sanctions against Syria, too.
Yet Mr. Obama wants to give in more to Russia. I don’t want to see us involved in Syria, but why do we refrain from involvement there when we went out of our way to make the situation worse in Egypt and Libya? By the end of the year, Egypt will be run by the Muslim Brotherhood, and when that happens, there go the Camp David Accords. Watch out, Israel, even though the United States supposedly is your friend and ally.
For the past few years, our country has signaled that we will negotiate from a position of weakness. Look where that has gotten us. We need to be strong again. Negotiating from a position of strength is how we brought down the Berlin Wall.
MARK CERNAK SR.
Chesapeake, Va.
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