ANALYSIS/OPINION:

I’ve written a great deal about the Obama administration’s policies and the consequences of Barack Hussein Obama’s two terms as president of the United States. The most simple reduction of the eight years of Mr. Obama’s reign was that you could not listen to what the man, or his minions, had to say to discern his agenda. No, you had to look at the consequences of his actions.

These consequences included an Islamic caliphate in the Middle East, Iran with a pathway to nuclear weapons, a doubling of the national debt, a weakened military capability, uncontrolled illegal immigration, loss of international prestige and influence, and the politicization and corruption of our most-valued institutions. From these developments, I believe it is easy to visualize Mr. Obama’s agenda―simply the destruction of America as we knew her.

As Russia makes the news day after day in one form or another, from Western media hysteria, to the lethal calculations of the Kremlin and their deployment on the world stage, I believe the West must use the same concept when dealing with Moscow … don’t listen to their words, look at their actions and the consequences of those actions.

Perhaps the most striking example of this way of thinking is the current scandal involving the use of a military-grade nerve agent in an attempt to kill a former Russian double-agent living in the United Kingdom, and the murder a few days later of the former head of the Russian state airline, Aeroflot, who was living in Britain as well, having made an enemy of the Kremlin.

Besides the chemical allegedly being a type of WMD that was produced by the Soviet Union several decades before, there is no public proof that Russia was involved in this violence. If this was a stand-alone incident, perhaps Moscow could be provided the benefit of the doubt. However, this was not a one-off murder attempt. Russia is linked to a string of dead bodies in Britain, all former enemies of the Russian state, including an assassination using radioactive material ingested with the victim’s tea.

I’m aware and sensitive to Russia’s history and mistrust of the West, and their feelings of NATO encroaching on their borders. However, we’ve had a decade of aggressive military maneuvers, annexation of parts of neighboring countries, instigation of a civil war in Ukraine, active measures in former Soviet republics and Eastern Europe, propaganda campaigns in the West, support of the Assad regime’s use of chemical weapons against its own people, the enabling of the downing of a civilian airliner, et cetera, et cetera. One could go on if you thought about it.

The nerve gas attack in Britain was reckless. It hurt other people, many of them. More than 20 people were hospitalized. Former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said it best when he declared, “Mr. Putin runs an entirely different system … he runs an economy that is dominated by oligarchs and criminal syndicates, it is not at all like our economy, it doesn’t share our interests, it doesn’t share our values and so I think we need to have discussions where we can really rally the shared interests of the Western democratic world.”

Human life simply has a different meaning in the Russian Federation.

I still believe that President Trump was right in attempting to foster better relations with Moscow. As Mr. Putin frequently reminds us, Russia is a nuclear power, with the capacity to destroy the United States. There are areas where the U.S. and Russia could work together, like fighting the scourge of Islamic terror. However, I have also said Russia needs to be confronted and countered when needed. This is one of those times. You don’t have to believe Trump colluded with Russia during the election to think this way. In fact, the West would do itself a favor to end the Trump/Russia hysteria, and focus with a clear eye on the Kremlin’s current behavior.

Russia will not change anytime soon. It will take generations for that possibility to come to pass. The Soviet generations simply have to fade into history, before the Russian people can have a chance at the rule of law, and a more free society. In the meantime, we must be vigilant.

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