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Comment by IncreasePosts | Hacker News Reader

Russia definitely was a foreign adversary 10 years ago. They annexed Crimea in March 2014. Of course, the one persons opinion that mattered(Obama) thought "lol it's not the 80s anymore"

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to be fair to obama, let's not pretend he didn't have an army of super smart planners, strategists and analysts behind him in various corners of the pentagon, the CIA and the NSA that led him to that decision

Do you have any evidence that the analysis supported the decision "nah let it slide"?

You don't need a bench of NSA analysts to grow a spine.

The reality is, the Obama administration kept drawing red lines that kept getting stepped over with no consequences. Syria, Iran, ISIS...Russia saw that and that there'd be no real consequences. Same thing happening now with the Biden foreign policy of "don't". Might call it the anti-Roosevelt doctrine: speak timidly, and what stick?

edit: minor grammar fix

North Korea.

Not entirely his fault but they got the bomb on his watch.

Sure, but were those super smart planners, strategists, and analysts just providing plans, strategy, and analysis that Obama already agreed with? Romney saw Russia for what it was in 2012 - Obama/Romney vote percents in 2012 was 51/47, a fairly close election. If Romney did win, would all of those planners/strategists/analysts be trying to convince Romney that Russia wasn't a threat, or would he just have had a different set that were telling him Russia is a major threat?

Right, I should have said 11 years ago, or 10.2 years ago.

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