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Asia impacted by US missile shift
Asia Times ^ | 9/22/2009 | Peter J. Brown

Posted on 09/22/2009 9:06:41 PM PDT by Saije

United States President Barack Obama and members of his administration are going to great lengths to explain the reasons why the US abruptly changed course with respect to its anti-missile strategy for Europe. In the process, little or nothing has been said about the impact of this new plan on Asia.

Silence or not, both China and Japan must assess the consequences of this activity because what the US is now proposing for Europe in terms of missile defense is right in line with what has been unfolding all along in East Asia, where the US Navy forms the front line for the US missile shield, backed by land-based interceptors in increasing numbers and a powerful radar network both on land and at sea...

When it comes to US economic and national security concerns, China - not Russia - is Obama's top priority. And North Korea's actions, not Iran's present posturing, is what has preoccupied US ballistic missile defense (BMD) planners so intensely over the past five years.

The US decision does not put Asia at risk, but it does not fit well with current US efforts to improve ties with China at a time when North Korea is happy to cast itself as the largest dormant volcano in Northeast Asia. Obama is displaying a lack of predictability, and this weighs on US-China relations. Making China uncomfortable at this point is not a good idea because Beijing equates a failure to appreciate the need for predictability with instability, and perhaps even distrust....

(Excerpt) Read more at atimes.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Japan; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: china; japan; korea; nkorea; obama; taiwan
Article has a lot more in it. I'm sure Obama's thought it all through though.
1 posted on 09/22/2009 9:06:41 PM PDT by Saije
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To: Saije; Nachum; Cindy; TigerLikesRooster

Ping.


2 posted on 09/22/2009 9:08:14 PM PDT by Jet Jaguar (A mob of one.)
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To: Saije

I like that,
“where the Us Navy forms the frontline”

until Obama seeks to dismantle that too, like the CIA, the European missile shield....

it all adds up to making America as weak and vulnerable as possible.


3 posted on 09/22/2009 9:10:58 PM PDT by himno hero
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To: Saije

I like that,
“where the Us Navy forms the frontline”

until Obama seeks to dismantle that too, like the CIA, the European missile shield....

it all adds up to making America as weak and vulnerable as possible.


4 posted on 09/22/2009 9:10:59 PM PDT by himno hero
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To: Saije
Why Obama was not advised to hold off on this decision at least until after his trip to Asia in November is a mystery.

Less of a mystery now. It appears that it was a decision taken in haste in preparation for the talks on 23 September in the UN, preparatory to the 1 October meetings in Geneva which concern Russia's participation in "crippling" sanctions against Iran. Cooperation by the Russians is the reward 0bama apparently expects in return for the BMD turnaround in Poland and the Czech Republic.

He won't get it. Russia already has what they want. And making him look good is as far as they're likely to go. Expect a press blizzard, with nothing of substance behind it.

5 posted on 09/22/2009 9:17:52 PM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: Billthedrill
preparatory to the 1 October meetings in Geneva which concern Russia's participation in "crippling" sanctions against Iran.

China and Venezuela supply Iran...they don't need the Russians.

6 posted on 09/22/2009 9:24:56 PM PDT by Prokopton
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To: Jet Jaguar

Thank you for the ping Jet Jaguar.

For those who say President Obama is ignorant; they are wrong.
The truth is that he has an agenda and with the help of his administration, czars, friends and associates; he is fulfilling this.


7 posted on 09/22/2009 9:36:25 PM PDT by Cindy
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To: Prokopton
"China and Venezuela supply Iran...they don't need the Russians."

Maybe not, but they are great pals anyways.

8 posted on 09/22/2009 9:48:19 PM PDT by Nathan Zachary
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To: Prokopton
Oh, my no. The sanctions being discussed in reply to the Iranian nuclear weapons programs are a shutoff of refined petroleum products, specifically gasoline and diesel. We can do this by blockading the Gulf. The Russians, on the other hand, can supply Iran's entire needs themselves, by train.

With Russian cooperation sanctions are possible. Without it they aren't. The Chinese are spectators in this one. That's why 0bama slipped the dagger into the Poles and the Czechs. He wants the Russians to help with the sanctions. They, in turn, want a free hand in the territories that used to be a part of the Soviet Union. The Poles will be fine for now but the Ukrainians had better forget about NATO.

Will the Russians play? I'm guessing not - although it really isn't in their long-term interest to see nuclear weapons in Iranian hands, the Iranians are a strategic lever against the U.S. in Europe. They can always deal with the Iranians later should it become necessary.

9 posted on 09/22/2009 9:58:26 PM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: himno hero

I don’t think that the Obama administration wants the United States to act like a Great Power.


10 posted on 09/22/2009 9:59:55 PM PDT by RobbyS (ECCE HOMO!)
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To: himno hero

0bama won’t be satisfied until America resembles Haiti, or perhaps his homeland.


11 posted on 09/22/2009 11:18:03 PM PDT by Trod Upon (Obama: Making the Carter malaise look good. Misery Index in 3...2...1)
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To: Saije
Asia impacted by US missile shift

I'm so tired of high school students getting title editor jobs...

12 posted on 09/23/2009 12:16:01 AM PDT by Talisker (When you find a turtle on top of a fence post, you can be damn sure it didn't get there on it's own.)
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To: Trod Upon

I believe you are 100 percent on the money.

Perhaps beyond that

Are either Indonesia or Kenya communist?


13 posted on 09/23/2009 12:16:43 AM PDT by himno hero
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To: Billthedrill

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2346139/posts


14 posted on 09/23/2009 8:13:53 PM PDT by Prokopton
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