China's President Xi Jinping (right) and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, attend a welcome ceremony at the Xijiao State Guest Hotel, before the fourth Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia summit in Shanghai, on May 20, 2014. Reuters/Carlos Barria
Josh Rogin, Bloomberg: The Pentagon's Lonely War Against Russia and China
At last weekend's Reagan National Defense Forum, top Pentagon officials warned about the coming great power battles with Russia and China. But the U.S. approach to both countries shows that other parts of the administration view those relationships in a very different way.
Before Defense Secretary Ashton Carter's keynote speech at the Reagan Presidential Library in California, his staff sent out the message that Carter would be making significant remarks about Russia and China, following his recent trip to Asia.
"We do not seek a cold, let alone a hot, war with Russia," Carter said. "We do not seek to make Russia an enemy. But make no mistake; the United States will defend our interests, our allies, the principled international order, and the positive future it affords us all."
WNU Editor: President Obama is a lame duck, and the last thing that he and his supporters want is his legacy to be remembered for getting involved in a conflict with Russia or China. And while the Pentagon is sounding the alarm about the need to address long-term national security challenges now .... this is not a priority for this White House. Unfortunately .... both Russia's Putin and China's Xi are aware of this, and are taking full advantage of it to pursue their own foreign policy objectives and priorities without any concerns on what the U.S. reaction will be. My prediction .... it will be a year and a half before a new U.S. President will be in a position to influence policy .... and it will be during this time that both Russia and China are going to accelerate their foreign policy priorities .... which in turn will cause a rise in tensions when Americas allies who are now in the "cross-hairs" of Moscow and Beijing start to push back.