President Obama may be a smart politician, at least his keepers are, but he and they are missing a golden opportunity to blame someone else for creating the difficult situations he faces.

Obama would be justified if he blamed Russia’s re-emergence as a communist nation and its status as a once-again world power on a host of past leaders.

Obama would for once be telling the truth if he blamed stalwarts who have served as White House headmen in years gone by for the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.

Technically, it would be fair for Obama to go back to 1917, to Woodrow Wilson, whose World War I helped solidify the communist revolution.

Before World War II began, and during it, one of Wilson’s successors, Franklin Roosevelt, gave military equipment and supplies to the Soviet Union which helped it beat off the Nazis and take over most of central and southern Europe, as well as part of Korea.

As for the Korean War, under President Harry Truman the United States fought its first war with no intention of winning. Truman and his administration didn’t want to say anything about the Soviet Union aiding North Korea and China to help kill Americans (about 38,000) that might make the Soviets mad.

Ergo, when Lyndon Johnson led the U.S. into Vietnam, a war that killed about 57,000 Americans, the Soviet Union and China helped the communists, with no protestation from the man who vowed to Americans that he would not send Americans to fight in an Asian war.

Although along the way he may have learned a lot from slick predecessor Bill Clinton, Obama apparently hasn’t yet fully developed one important trait of Clinton, polished slick lying. Many came to believe that Clinton preferred telling a lie, even if the truth would suffice for his purposes.

It is credible for Obama to blame his immediate predecessor, George W. Bush, for continuing the practice of aiding Russia. Most importantly, Bush kept American taxpayers’ money flowing to Russia so its bureaucrats could keep Russia afloat and communism alive.

Bush, after all, was the “free world’s leader” who looked into the eyes of Russian leader and former KGB officer Vladimir Putin and saw something good. Being poor with language, Bush never could explain just what he saw.

So Obama has ample evidence to blame predecessors for actions which makes it difficult today for him to stand up credibly against communism.

Even if he wanted to.

Obama could even blame the guy who has been president since 2009. He wouldn’t have to call the fellow’s name, the one whose stated policy was to “reset” America’s policy toward Russia, which has allowed Putin to act with impunity in more and more locations, ranging from Syria to Iran to Walla Walla, Washington.

And now Ukraine.

L.E. Brown, Jr. is an independent writer, based in Magnolia, N.C. Contact him via [email protected]