Rich Zeoli Talks With Foreign Policy Analyst Ed Turzanski About White House Response To Russian Agression
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Ed Turzanski, the John Templeton Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute and La Salle University's Assistant Vice-President for Government and Community Relations, stated that the United States' decision to station heavy weaponry in six eastern European countries is an acknowledgment that efforts to develop a closer and more friendlier relationship with Russia has failed.
Turzanski told Rich Zeoli on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT that Russian President Vladimir Putin has taken advantage of the Obama Administration's foreign policy up to this point.
"All of this is being done because Putin's behavior toward his immediate neighbors in Eastern Europe has gotten menacing to the point where they have prevailed on the administration to actually start to look more seriously at the downsides of the reset and to finally recognize, without saying explicitly, that this whole notion of a reset to Russia and having better relations with Putin by giving in to impulses and criticizing our own past policies, it was all a terrible mistake."
He also would not be surprised to see the Russians respond in kind following these military movements
"Things have gotten so bad that even the Obama Administration has had to go back on the reset and this very symbolic gesture is, right now just that, it's symbolism, but don't be surprised if Putin ratchets up the pressure just to see what the administration is going to do in response."
Turzanski said he believes a re-commitment from the US and military powers in Europe is necessary to keep the number of global threats from escalating again.
"Europe is going to have to spend a lot of money, a lot of its own money, to modernize its military. We're going to have to lead the way. But the question has to be asked...in an era of constrained budgets, what's it going to take to persuade the American public that we need to invest in a military that can match the policy objectives that we, as a country, have globally."