President Obama’s speech content was interesting to watch this past week. Many have said it was simply a pleasure to watch a statesman who can effectively deliver a speech. But there was something much different than style between the former President and the present one. In fact there was an element to Obama’s speeches that was not only bold but if poorly executed could easily have been seen as patronizing. Fortunately for us Obama is a superb speaker with a knowledge of the world to go with it.  In France he told his audience:

But in Europe, there is an anti-Americanism that is at once casual but can also be insidious. Instead of recognizing the good that America so often does in the world, there have been times where Europeans choose to blame America for much of what’s bad.

In Ankara today Obama pointed out a festering wound that has been denied by the Turkish government:

Human endeavor is by its nature imperfect. History is often tragic, but unresolved, it can be a heavy weight. Each country must work through its past. And reckoning with the past can help us seize a better future. I know there’s strong views in this chamber about the terrible events of 1915. And while there’s been a good deal of commentary about my views, it’s really about how the Turkish and Armenian people deal with the past. And the best way forward for the Turkish and Armenian people is a process that works through the past in a way that is honest, open and constructive.

In 1915 during the Great War the Ottoman Empire carried out the century’s first genocide against their Christian Armenian population. Though statistics are hard to come by, as many as one million people were systematically slaughtered. The event was simply an extension of a war that would not be resolved until 1945. When Adolf Hitler prepared to wreak vengeance on the Polish nation in 1939 he said:

My decision to attack Poland was arrived at last spring. Originally, I feared that the political constellation would compel me to strike simultaneously at England, Russia, France, and Poland. Even this risk would have had to be taken.

Ever since the autumn of 1938, and because I realized that Japan would not join us unconditionally and that Mussolini is threatened by that nit-wit of a king and the treasonable scoundrel of a crown prince, I decided to go with Stalin.

In the last analysis, there are only three great statesmen in the world, Stalin, I, and Mussolini. Mussolini is the weakest, for he has been unable to break the power of either the crown or the church. Stalin and I are the only ones who envisage the future and nothing but the future. Accordingly, I shall in a few weeks stretch out my hand to Stalin at the common German-Russian frontier and undertake the redistribution of the world with him.

Our strength consists in our speed and in our brutality. Genghis Khan led millions of women and children to slaughter — with premeditation and a happy heart. History sees in him solely the founder of a state. It’s a matter of indifference to me what a weak western European civilization will say about me.

I have issued the command — and I’ll have anybody who utters but one word of criticism executed by a firing squad — that our war aim does not consist in reaching certain lines, but in the physical destruction of the enemy. Accordingly, I have placed my death-head formations in readiness — for the present only in the East — with orders to them to send to death mercilessly and without compassion, men, women, and children of Polish derivation and language. Only thus shall we gain the living space (Lebensraum) which we need. Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?

The fact that President Obama brought up the genocide issue before the Turkish Parliament today showed political fortitude. But his style both in Ankara today and in the town hall he had in Strasbourg last week showed amazing skill. He at first made it known that we have had our historical flaws as well. In Strasbourg he spoke of American arrogance when dealing with international affairs. In Ankara he spoke of the flaws of the American journey after 1783, especially in relation to slavery and civil rights. Prior to speaking about Armenian genocide Obama noted:

Another issue that confronts all democracies as they move to the future is how we deal with the past. The United States is still working through some of our own darker periods in our history. Facing the Washington Monument that I spoke of is a memorial of Abraham Lincoln, the man who freed those who were enslaved even after Washington led our revolution. Our country still struggles with the legacies of slavery and segregation, the past treatment of Native Americans.

There are many of those on the right who choose to denigrate Obama. They claim that he is all too eager to chastise America; some would say a subtle version of the Dixie Chicks incident a few years back. But those critical of Obama’s statements simply need to intellectually mature. As Obama begins to break down the multitude of barriers that had been erected these last eight years and as he begins to lay the groundwork for new foundations, a little humility seems to go a long way.

Poll: Obama Approval Hits New High – 66%

Obama, the pragmatist, wins NATO kudos but few troops for Afghan mission

Europeans are very subtle by nature. The farther north you go in Europe the more subtle they get. President Obama spoke in Strasbourg today. Though in France, it is as much German as it is French in temperament (if not in nationality). This was the second leg of Obama’s first overseas trip but you would never know he was a novice. With 19 other leaders, none garnered as much attention and admiration as the new US President has. What an amazing opportunity at an amazing time, and he has not disappointed. If you haven’t watched the full town hall speech President Obama gave in Strasbourg then you have missed one of those moments that don’t come around very often. It was a natural fit. Europe is a bastion of liberalism and Obama is a leftist. But no ordinary politician could have given the speech he did today. Within 20 minutes he was able to sweep away the transgressions of the eight year nightmare that was George Bush. Without giving up an inch of American principle, Obama was able to reach out to those in attendance and all those sitting in front of their television screens and embrace a bygone era when Europe and the US held the shield together in the shadow of a communist menace and at the same time forge an understanding of the present and future in a frank and direct fashion. Explaining to a liberal audience the importance of maintaining a presence in Afghanistan. For 20 minutes he spoke and there was not one audible jeer. It was as if you could see the sludge being washed away before your very eyes. It seems in this climate of rational thought all things are possible. Perhaps I’m wrong. After all, it is just President Obama’s first overseas trip.

Watch the full speech HERE

Germans look to Obama rather than Merkel in crisis

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And what is left for the Conservatives to rally behind? Why, Glenn Beck of course. He made that ideological based leap from CNN to Fox and he has rocketed up to the second most watched pundit on cable news. I’m not sure if I should be amused or scared at this fact because Beck is a bit…how do you say it?…unbalanced (a true equalizer on the “Fair and Balanced” network). When the Conservatives receive their news from a steady diet of Limbaugh, O’Reilly, Hannity and Beck you can understand how their party, message and identity is deep in the weeds.

Acting almost as a counterweight to the peace and harmony of the 2008 Summer Olympics, events in the world seem to be spinning in directions even the CIA must find challenging.

The Russian invasion of their former republic of Georgia this week caused many old enough to recall the Prague Summer of 1968 when Warsaw Pact forces crushed the attempt by Czechoslovakia to liberalize in what was known as the Prague Spring. But the Russians learned much from their WW II foe, Nazi Germany. In almost a rehash of the events that led to the German seizure of Czechoslovakia in 1938, Putin (though no longer President but surely the conductor of recent events) appears to have incited the Russian militias in the Georgian province of South Ossetia to rebel, forcing Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvilli to react. Machiavelli is alive and well in the new Russia. The Russian occupation of Georgian territory was done under the ruse of Georgian oppression of its Russian minorities.

Vladimir Putin has expressed the belief that relinquishing the non-Russian republics was a huge mistake following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Some experts have indicated Russia will continue to use the notion of oppressed Russian minorities throughout the former Russian republics to re-exert Russian dominance along her borders. Though no one believes Putin is a Hitler, he sure is reading from the Fuhrer’s playbook.

Russia, however, may have overplayed its hand. Her other neighbors are now worried they may get the same treatment. In 2004 Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko was poisoned and nearly died. Many believe Yushchenko’s pro-western stance brought about the attack. The Kremlin backed Yushchenko’s advisary. Ukraine has reason to fear the Bear on their border.

Poland has begun to act. They are now asking the US to install an anti-missile defense on their territory; a move surely to infuriate Moscow. These fledgling democracies are turning to the West for assistance in the wake of Russia’s aggressive posture. The dynamics of this new tension are just now beginning to play out.

Another sequence of events whose outcome is less than clear is taking place in Pakistan. General Pervez Musharraf, the long time president and US “ally” will be stepping down within the next couple days. Facing impeachment and losing support among his inner circle, Musharraf is brokering a deal that would allow him to either live in Pakistan with immunity  from prosecution or to live in exile. This is occurring as rival groups are jockeying to fill the void that will be left by Musharraf’s departure. As the US stands on the sidelines waiting for the fallout, there is uncertainty of what America’s relationship with the new leadership will be. At a time of shifting resources from Iraq to Afghanistan, the outcome of the political machinations that is gripping Pakistan will have significant implications in the continuing war against extremism in the region.

With a big foot in the Arab world and another in South Asia the United States is now forced to keep an eye further north in the Caucasus. The Russians have decided to play their hand now, making an already complicated American foreign policy even more so.

Every winter we hear about little old ladies who can’t afford their energy bill and live in small cold apartments. Well, it appears the Ukraine is playing that role these days. Russia’s energy company Gazprom has reduced the flow of natural gas to the Ukraine by 25% because of a delinquent bill. The former Soviet Republic owes Russia $600 million. The Ukraine, by far the largest importer of Russia’s natural gas,  has promised to pay the bill but says the reduction in gas output from Russia is not a major issue since the winter in that generally cold nation has been mild. Some believe Russia’s move was meant to show the region that she plans on continuing Putin’s strong hand. Russia and the Ukraine have a long history of tension culminating in Stalin’s decimation of the population of this largely agricultural country in the 1930s when he starved between seven and nine million Ukrainians after they failed to embrace his policies.

The closing of the oil spiket comes on the heels of the election in Russia of a new President, Dmitry Medvedev, who promises to have a more aggressive foreign policy. Anti-government rallies and dissent have been quashed in the wake of the election. Opposition parties have vocally referred to the election as a sham. Protests from  pro-Putin youths known as the Nashi rallying in front of the US Embassy against the occupation of Iraq and the US’s recognition of Kosovar independence were allowed to commence. Russia  historically has had strong ties with Serbia, the Baltic nation that recently lost the mostly Muslim state of Kosovo. Russia, no stranger to aggression throughout its long history, continues to flex its muscle in the region. The Cold War may be in the history books but that does not mean Russia as a Eurasian power has faded as well.