President Barack Obama Reignites the Cold War

http://watchingamerica.com/News/240021/president-barack-obama-reignites-the-cold-war/

The Obama who introduced himself to Europe in Berlin in July 2008 proclaiming that the only way forward is to 'tear down' walls and 'build new bridges' was unrecognizable this Tuesday as he encouraged the Western countries in NATO to increase their defense budgets.

President Barack Obama Reignites the Cold War
El Mundo, Spain
By Rosalia Sanchez
Translated By Mayra Reiter
4 June 2014
Edited by Gillian Palmer

As the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall nears, U.S. President Barack Obama announced this Tuesday in Warsaw a billion-dollar program, about 735 million euro, to increase American military presence on NATO’s Eastern border. At the same time that German Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed to a face-to-face meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin with the intention of deciding on stability measures for Ukraine, and as the G7, as a gesture of goodwill, leaked that no new sanctions against Russia will come out of the meeting that its representatives will hold this Tuesday in Brussels, Obama struck a threatening tone in Poland that was very far from conversational or conciliatory. “Further Russian provocation will be met with further costs for Russia,” he said, in clear reference to the uselessness of the sanctions the U.S. and the EU have imposed on Russia since last February.

The revitalizing effect that an extra $1 billion budgetary line item — with the excuse of the threat against Poland — will have on the U.S. economy doesn’t escape anybody, even though Obama has made an effort to portray it as the “commitment of the United States to the security of Poland.” At times it even looked like he felt obliged to return a favor, when he mentioned that he wanted to make a “show of support to allies who have contributed robustly and bravely to Alliance operations in Afghanistan and elsewhere and who are now deeply concerned by Russia’s occupation and attempted annexation of Crimea and other provocative actions in Ukraine.”

Helping “Make Poland Secure”

According to an explanatory document distributed by the U.S. Mission to NATO, the plan includes increasing exercises, training and rotational presence in Europe, especially on the territory of “newer allies.” It will also serve to increase the responsiveness of U.S. NATO forces and explore initiatives on the prepositioning of equipment and improvements to European facilities and infrastructure. Other goals contemplated in the plan are increasing the participation of the U.S. Navy in allied naval force deployments in the Black and Mediterranean seas, as well as building the capacity of “close friends” such as Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine, so they “can better work alongside the U.S. and NATO” and provide for their own defense.

Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski listened with satisfaction to Obama’s words and, pointing to the F-16s behind him, the stage décor of their joint press conference, thanked the U.S. for helping “make Poland secure.” The Obama who introduced himself to Europe in Berlin in July 2008 proclaiming that the only way forward is to “tear down” walls and “build new bridges” was unrecognizable this Tuesday as he encouraged the Western countries in NATO to increase their defense budgets. “We have seen a decline steadily in European defense spending,” he said, “that has to change.”