Moving Toward Fulfilling a Promise

Dear Friends,

I have been accused of never saying anything nice about President Obama or recognizing all the good things that he does.  Well today was a great day for President Obama, the United States, Russia and the entire world.  President Obama and President Medvedev signed a nuclear arms control treaty.  Here is the link to The New York Times article on it. 

Candidate Obama made it clear that he would seek a world free of nuclear weapons.  While acknowledging that it may not occur in his life time, he pledged to work toward that worthy goal.  Just a short time into his Presidency, he has taken a first very positive and visible step in that direction.  There was a time pre-President George W. Bush where this signing would not have been so significant.  But among the many disasters that President Obama inherited from President George W. Bush was a dysfunctional relationship with Russia.

Our relationship with Russia has been made functional by President Obama with a great deal of help from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.  I wanted Senator Clinton to stay in the Senate and take over Senator Reid's position as Senate Majority Leader, but she didn't and she has turned out to be a great Secretary of State. 

According to The New York Times article cited above:

The Russian president signaled general support for the American-led drive to impose new sanctions on Iran, saying that Tehran’s nuclear program has flouted the international community. “We cannot turn a blind eye to this,” Mr. Medvedev said, while adding that sanctions “should be smart” and avoid hardship for the Iranian people.
Mr. Obama said he expected “to be able to secure strong, tough sanctions” on Iran during the spring.

We need the support of Russia and other historical foes if we are to bring peace to the world.  That means we need functional relationships so that we can find common ground where it exists to work together toward mutually advantageous goals.  President Obama and Secretary Clinton understand this fact of life and are doing a great job of restoring the United States' place in the world and restoring civil and functional relationships with other nations where that is possible.

So for the signing of this nuclear arms control treaty and the clean up work that had to be done to get here, we should praise President Obama, Secretary Clinton and the Obama Administration.

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal