America Needs to Resume its Role as a Leader in the Free World

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On Secure Freedom Radio today, Frank Gaffney spoke with Garry Kasparov, the chess champion, speaker, chairman of the Human Rights Foundation and author of the new book “Winter is Coming: Why Vladimir Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must be Stopped.”

Kasparov suggests that as the dictator of Russia, Vladimir Putin is in a unique position to embolden the thugs of the world in places like North Korea, Iran and other countries.

He traces the beginnings of this problem back to the collapse of the Soviet Union:

“With the Soviet Union gone, what was the existential threat for the free world? But we were wrong because evil doesn’t go away, it doesn’t disappear. It could be buried for a while under the rubble of the Berlin Wall, but eventually it sprouts out and the eight years of the Bill Clinton administration were instrumental for the evil to regroup and strike back.”

Kasparov reminds us that during the Clinton years, many people didn’t want to engage in any type of aggression and that the freedom agenda suffered as a result. He also points out that it was under Clinton that the awful deal with North Korea was made in 1994 and that Clinton undermined a bipartisan effort in congress to keep Russia from engaging with Iran.

Clinton isn’t solely to blame, however. Gaffney points out that some of these problems began with the first Bush administration which “didn’t want to gloat” about the destruction of the Soviet Union.

Looking forward, Kasparov predicts what Putin could do next:

“As long as Putin stays in power, as long as Putin is in Kremlin, we could expect more and more conflict provoked by Putin’s agents, Putin’s cronies and Putin’s military. In Ukraine, in Syria and if nothing changes in the world climate I wouldn’t be surprised to see Putin’s provocations against countries like Estonia or Latvia. What emboldens Putin is the weakness, the indecisiveness of the free world.”

Kasparov lays the blame for this at the feet of the Obama administration which he suggests has left a vacuum that is being filled by enemies of freedom.

“Every day that America is in retreat, is a day that the enemies of the free world are in advance.”

Kasparov also suggests that while confronting Putin today may seem difficult, that it will be far more complicated later.

“It’s about political will. Not the United States being the policemen of the world but being a leader.”