LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Obama foreign policy on crash course

OPINION:

America is battling radical Islamic terrorists and needs to declare war on the Islamic State. Yet, despite national security being the top worry of Americans following the murder of 14 and the injuring of 21 in San Bernardino, Calif., there has been no shift in policy by President Obama.

When Ronald Reagan was president, America had nearly 15,000 nuclear weapons. Under Mr. Obama’s unilateral-disarmament policy, that number is down to 1,500 aging and decaying warheads (which may soon be slashed to just a few hundred). Mr. Obama has ignored Russia’s encroachment on its neighbors, the latest invasion of Syria, and Vladimir Putin’s plans to expand his global reach by establishing permanent military bases at our backdoor in Nicaragua and Venezuela. Mr. Obama has allowed the Islamic State to run out of control in Syria and Iraq; sending a small detail of 50 Special Forces soldiers to 19 countries is not a serious response.

China has unveiled a new stealth bomber, a copied version of the latest U.S. F-35, and is rapidly building up its entire military. China has declared vast parts of the Pacific Chinese territory and is increasingly threatening Japan, South Korea, the Philippines and our other allies in the region. The Chinese have also cyber-attacked our most sensitive business and military computer systems and may soon be the dominant world power in space. Iran is speeding up development of a nuclear bomb and taking covert action around the world against Israel.

While Mr. Putin is threatening nuclear war, building more military bases in Syria and Ukraine, modernizing his military and violating our air space, Barack Obama has actually accelerated policies to totally disarm our military, eliminate nuclear deterrents and open our borders to thousands of illegal aliens (including, no doubt, members of the Islamic State). In the nuclear age, a repeat of the appeasement policies in place prior to World War II could result in the deaths of hundreds of millions. Congress and 2016 presidential cadidates must not allow Mr. Obama to doom us and the world to that tragic, horrific fate.

LT. COL. DOMINIK GEORGE NARGELE

U.S. Marine Corps (retired)

Arlington