It’s “remarkable” President Obama, who doesn’t understand America’s national interests, is trying to score points against Putin for not advancing Russian interests, Charles Krauthammer charged tonight on Fox News’s Special Report.
Responding to Obama predicting Putin will eventually realize his Middle East strategy is failing and that he’ll realign Russia alongside America’s Syrian campaign, Krauthammer said, “For a guy who doesn’t understand the American national interests, that’s a remarkable statement.”
“Then he actually added something and said, ‘With the memory of Afghanistan fresh in his mind, Putin will understand he’s in the quagmire,’” Krauthammer continued. “The Russians left Afghanistan 25 years ago. The people stuck in the quagmire today are Americans under Obama. He’s been in office seven years, 76 percent of the combat deaths of Americans in Afghanistan has occurred under Obama and there is little doubt that our position in Afghanistan today is weaker than it was seven years ago when he came into office.”
“So when he’s trying to instruct Putin on national interests and on quagmires, he’s on rather thin ground,” Krauthammer said.
Krauthammer then attacked the White House for going out of its way to minimize the impact of its anti-ISIS air campaign:
Just one point about the testimony today: The chairman of the joint chiefs was asked whether he considers the drivers of the oil trucks by ISIS, the ones who export it, as combatants, and he said no they’re civilians, trying to feed their families. And that’s why we actually dropped leaflets warning the drivers, three-quarters of an hour before any air strikes. This is a joke and it comes not from the Pentagon, it comes from the White House. This has not been a serious air war and all the promises — that, ‘oh yes, now we’re going to get serious’? — are a joke as long as this president is commander-in-chief.