Bill Carmichael: Russia called the West’s bluff

His presidential rival Barack Obama was even more dismissive, accusing Romney of reviving “Cold War rhetoric” and in a memorable soundbite telling him: “The 1980s are calling to ask for their foreign policy back.”

Even more derision was heaped on the head of vice presidential hopeful Sarah Palin a few years earlier when she specifically warned that Obama’s weakness on foreign policy could lead to Russia invading Ukraine.

Oh how they laughed! What an incredibly stupid woman to suggest modern Russian could be a threat to world peace. Only a total foreign policy ignoramus could think such a thing.

Well, I guess they are not laughing now, because it turns out all the pundits, foreign policy “experts” and Obama cheerleaders in the media were 100 per cent wrong, and Romney and Palin were pretty much bang on the money.

The notion that the Russians are a bunch of peacenik treehuggers, just like us, turns out to be little more than a dangerous left-wing delusion.

The West’s handling of the Ukraine crisis has been lamentable, with what we used to think as the leader of the free world being the worst culprit.

The most damaging attribute you can have in foreign policy is empty bluster – and I am afraid Obama is full of it. Theodore Roosevelt’s advice was to “speak softly and carry a big stick”. Obama does the opposite, shouting rash threats like a bar room braggart and then running away if anyone calls him out on it.

Take Syria for example, where Obama laid out clear “red lines” on the use of chemical weapons to President Bashar al-Assad. But when Assad simply ignored the warning and started using toxic gas on his own people, Obama immediately crumbled – and then hilariously tried to pretend he’d never set out any “red lines” in the first place.

That episode was a green light to any bully wondering if they could safely get away with defying the West – and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has pushed the accelerator to the floor.

Last weekend Obama warned Putin there would be “costs” if Russia intervened militarily in Ukraine. Hours later Russian troops were seizing military installations and airports in the Crimea. You could almost hear Putin sneering: “What are you going to do about it, pretty boy?”

The UK has not been any better. Foreign Secretary William Hague warned Russia of the “consequences” of the invasion and promised tough action. But thanks to a “top secret” briefing paper accidentally shown to photographers by an adviser at Downing Street this week, we now know exactly what these “consequences” amount to – no military action, no trade sanctions, no asset freezes and no action against rich Russians living in London.

Little effective help for Ukraine is on offer from the US or Britain, so I suppose that just leaves Europe.

But frankly if Ukraine’s most stalwart allies are the French and the Belgians they might as well save a bit of time and wave the white flag now.

I feel desperately sorry for the democrats in the Ukraine who dreamed of their country as free and independent, but in a conflict between wily and ruthless Russia and a weak and duplicitous West there was only ever going to be one winner.

The bald truth is that the West no longer has the inclination – or the military might – effectively to promote liberty around the world. The wisest thing the Ukrainians can do in the circumstances is to make the best peace they can with Russia and hope there will not be any further bloodshed.