By Bill O'Reilly
It is now clear that President Obama and the rest of the world will not punish Russia and Putin for seizing the Crimea. A few wishy-washy sanctions have been put in place, but nothing substantial. And today in Holland, the President confirmed that however, if Putin seizes more of Ukraine, Mr. Obama says he'll get tough.
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BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Should Russia go further, such sectoral sanctions would appropriate and that would include areas potentially like energy or finance or arms sales or trade that exists between Europe and the United States and Russia.
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The President looks exhausted, doesn't he? The American public does not seem disenchanted with the President on the issue. A new CBS News poll says 61 percent of Americans believe the USA has no responsibility to do something about the Russian Ukrainian situation. And 65 percent do not want the President to provide military aid to Ukraine.
Very high numbers so what's going on?
After Iraq and Afghanistan, Americans are rightfully fearful of becoming involved with another international conflict. But there is a lot more in play here than most Americans know. As "Talking Points" has said, what Putin does will influence what Iran does, what China does and what North Korea does. Thus the weak response to Putin sends a signal of weakness to the villains of the world.
I'm not talking about military action here. I'm suggesting that much tougher economic sanctions be imposed on Russia. Right now Putin is winking at Joseph Stalin as Russian expansionism is on the march.
And what about President Obama's poor attitude toward our military? While Putin has expanded the Russian military budget by 79 percent, the President is cutting back meaningful military programs here in America. He wants to downsize the army, eliminate many Tomahawk missiles. Most of our naval fleet is not even in use. And generally we are a much weaker nation militarily than we were five years ago.
Putin knows that. He knows Barack Obama has no appetite for confrontation. Therefore, all Americans should expect the world to get much more turbulent as Iran and other rogue nations unleash aggression. Of course, that will affect all of us because every time there is a controversy overseas the economy takes a hit. Gas prices go up. What Congress should do immediately is to bolster military spending and oversee our armed forces so they become a true deterrent. The stronger a nation is the less likely it will be challenged.
Right now Russia doesn't fear the West. Iran believes it could develop a nuke and nothing will happen. And China is just waiting to seize more territory. Hello Tibet. Grim doesn't even come close.
And that's "The Memo."
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