Jackson Diehl at the Washington Post runs through the laundry list of potential “tests” that the next U.S. president could face internationally.
Beyond the rogues are the regulars: the countries that depend on American attention, positive or negative, to fuel their own political cycles — and are good at finding ways to grab it when they feel ignored. There are Latin American demagogues such as Hugo Chávez, who need a Yanqui enemy, and small Eurasian countries such as Georgia, which need a U.S. shield against Russia. There are the Russians themselves — who measure their country’s power by its ability to thwart American initiatives.
We think it’s not fair to underestimate Russia’s willingness to the be first to test the new president.
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One Comment
I simply cannot see how in the world any thinking person could possibly imagine it might be better to have Barack Obama, who had never heard of Russia before he decided to run for president, tested in this manner rather than John McCain.The idea of such occurring is genuinely frightening. Not that he mightn’t surprise us, of course, but flipping a coin in such situations seems quite deranged.