Final Word from Wednesday, September 30, 2015

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In his 40-minute speech at the United Nations, Barack Obama touched on at least 20 different major issues, from climate change to eradicating extreme poverty. In his 10-minute address, Miloš Zeman limited himself to one issue and said that if you have many topics and priorities in your short speech, you have none. Whether this was a jab at Obama we will probably never know, but it's clear that the thrust of Zeman's speech was anti-Obama. Zeman repeated his call from Jan. for a global anti-terrorism force on the level of the U.N. Security Council. Others, including Obama, have spoken of closer cooperation with Moscow on this, but Zeman's version would give Russia (as a member of the Security Council) a veto over the U.S.'s efforts. Zeman said nothing new yesterday, but the landscape is changing. Even his prime minister, Bohuslav Sobotka, has suggested that the U.S. is not doing enough to combat ISIS and to stabilize the Middle East. [Czech Republic U.N. war United States Islamic State ISIL]