Russia and its Icepick

There is only one real truth about Russia:  If you try to befriend it, Russia will stick an ice pick in your back when you are not looking.

Barack Obama and Michael McFaul learned that lesson recently when, despite their “reset” policy followed by four years of Chamberlain-style appeasement, Russia booted USAID out of the country, falsely accusing it of seeking to rig Russian elections.

It was an epic humiliation for Obama and McFaul, who previously have watched slack-jawed as Putin and Russia, despite their unilateral concessions on issues like missile defense and their feckless betrayal of the forces of democracy in Russia, have sided with every anti-U.S. dictatorship throughout the Middle East, from Egypt to Syria.  Russia has staunchly defended each and every one of the, up to and including the maniacal regime in Iran, from U.S.-led international pressure to be democratic, exactly what Obama claimed the reset would avoid.

And now Russia has spit in the face of Obama and McFaul by liquidating the primary engine of American philanthropy in Russia, without warning or reason, in simple knee-jerk display of anti-American hatred.  It has made clear that it intends to launch a whole new round of neo-Soviet crackdowns, and that Obama and McFaul have been suckered the exact same way Hitler suckered Chamberlain.

Fortunately for Americans, they will soon have the opportunity to show Obama and McFaul the way to the exits, and the ash heap of history. Unfortunately for Russians, they face a Putin who will be “president” for life, in the manner of Stalin and Brezhnev, and misguided U.S. policy has contributed mightily to that costly hardship.