PUTIN’S RESET

CONCLUSION
Americans now know that the weakness and naiveté of the Obama
administration, its foreign policy incompetence, and the power vacuums caused by
President Obama’s failure to lead on the world stage resulted in huge costs. When a
U.S. president repeatedly issues worthless ultimatums and empty threats and draws
red lines he fails to enforce, he undermines America’s credibility in the eyes of our
enemies as well as our friends.
These factors greatly exacerbated instability in the Middle East. They led to
the birth of ISIS. They also emboldened America’s enemies and adversaries across
the globe.
The instances of Russia disrespecting America at the beginning of this chapter
are symptoms of President Obama’s disastrous foreign policy. They reflect how a
Russian autocrat with a KGB/Soviet era mindset successfully exploited U.S. weakness
to advance his goal of regaining for Russia some of the power and influence of the
Soviet Union at America’s expense. Putin has used American weakness to make
progress toward his goal of drastically changing the current world order by ending the
political, economic and military dominance of the United States.
The damage done by Putin’s efforts to American security, as you will read
elsewhere in this book, is profound and growing. Reversing this damage will be a
herculean task, and could take many years. Most importantly, it will take principled
and competent American leadership.
24