Year Two of President Obama (John Feehery)
Posted on June 20, 2008
This originally appeared in The Hill Pundits blog
Jan. 10, 2010
WASHINGTON, D.C. — As the last American troops and embassy personnel departed Baghdad today, the Obama White House faces another crisis in Taiwan. The Chinese government today announced that it will impose its will on the people of Taiwan and moved to install a government loyal to Beijing in Taipei.
This follows a series of crises on the world stage that has kept President Obama busy since he followed up on his promise to withdrawal all American forces from Iraq.
It started with Iran’s incursion into Iraq, which was quickly followed by Turkey’s invasion of Kurdistan in Northern Iraq. Saudi Arabia, a bitter rival of Iran, stepped up its military support of the Sunni population outside of Baghdad, as the civil war, once dormant in the closing days of the Bush administration, has raged anew, killing thousands of Iraqis.
Upset that the Americans have largely abandoned the Sunni population in Iraq, the Saudis also responded by sharply limiting oil production, leading to even higher gas prices for American consumers.
As America withdrew its forces from Iraq, political support for the Americans plunged in Afghanistan and in Pakistan, as Afghanis and some Pakistanis decided to throw their support behind a newly resurgent Taliban, who used the defeat of America in Iraq as a rallying cry for recruitment.
Russia, with Vladimir Putin back in charge after a brief year off, moved quickly to install friendly governments in Ukraine and Georgia, and has mobilized opposition movements to topple the governments in Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia and replace with with regimes more friendly to the Kremlin.
Russia also announced that it will help both the Iranians and the North Koreans build a nuclear reactor for “peaceful” use.
The White House, which has embarked on a massive domestic spending program aimed at “healing” America, has sharply reduced spending on defense programs. One of the casualties of these spending cuts has been Seventh Fleet, which has had to cut its presence by half in the region.
These sharp cuts in defense spending, coupled with the inexperienced and untested Obama White House, emboldened the Chinese government to move quickly to take advantage of the weakness in American leadership and to install a puppet regime in Taiwan.
It is unclear how the White House will respond to the Chinese at this point, but it is unlikely the President Obama will provide military help to the pro-nationalists on Taiwan.