F 'em all.
Posted on 09/17/2009 8:44:41 AM PDT by La Lydia
...Some European cities already can be reached by Iran’s medium- and intermediate-range Shahab-class missiles. Many more will be in the cross-hairs once Iran acquires long-range intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) — estimates put that about six years out....
To defend Europe — and American troops stationed there — against the possibility of a missile attack from Iran would require a “Third Site.” The U.S. currently maintains one ground-based missile site in Fort Greely, Alaska, and a second at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. The Third Site would be in Poland (ten missile interceptors) and the Czech Republic (a radar installation). This would provide “the fastest and most cost-effective protection against the long-range missiles that Iran is projected to have by 2015,” noted Lt. Gen. Trey Obering (ret.), former head of the Missile Defense Agency, and Eric Edelman, fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Analysis, in a recent op-ed. They noted, too, that such interceptors have been thoroughly tested...
Thursday President Obama...officially (killed) the Third Site. Why? Apparently because Moscow objects — even though the interceptors, while sufficient to block a limited number of Iranian missiles, could not possibly threaten Russia. The Kremlin’s objections almost certainly stem ...from its ambitions for regional domination. What, if anything, Obama will get from the Russians in return from this capitulation remains to be seen.
Russian officials are not the only opponents of missile defense, however. Also making this a controversial issue is a curious coalition of what might be called the ideologically misguided, the incorrigibly naïve, and the terminally myopic. In the first category are those who believe that most of the problems in the world are caused by the U.S. and Israel, and that the cure is therefore to “address the grievances” of those who hate us, rather than protect ourselves from them.
Members of the second group have convinced themselves that leaving ourselves vulnerable and promoting global disarmament would set a moral example that such autocrats as Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Vladimir Putin, and Hugo Chávez surely would follow.
In the third category are the businessmen — mostly in Europe — who sell Iran’s rulers whatever weapons components they will pay for, as well as the university administrators — many in America — who train Iranian nuclear scientists because not to do so might be regarded as discriminatory.
The Third Site would not only have helped counter the growing Middle Eastern ballistic missile threat, it also would have strengthened transatlantic security. As ... Reuel Marc Gerecht has pointed out, Europe’s transatlanticists — not a burgeoning club — “have stuck their necks out in both the Czech Republic and Poland.” The death of the Third Site ensures that “pro-American forces throughout Europe will take a serious hit” and “the widespread European reflex to appease Russia” is likely to grow, “perhaps exponentially.”
At the same time, Iran’s ruling mullahs will be delighted. They will view this as weakness. And they will find such weakness provocative, as tyrants always do...We are encouraging our enemies to invest in increasingly advanced weapons technologies in the belief that, at a time of their choosing, they will be able to overwhelm our outdated system.
The Third Site would not only have helped counter the growing Middle Eastern ballistic missile threat, it also would have strengthened transatlantic security. As Foundation for Defense of Democracies senior fellow Reuel Marc Gerecht has pointed out, Europe’s transatlanticists — not a burgeoning club — “have stuck their necks out in both the Czech Republic and Poland.” The death of the Third Site ensures that “pro-American forces throughout Europe will take a serious hit” and “the widespread European reflex to appease Russia” is likely to grow, “perhaps exponentially.”
At the same time, Iran’s ruling mullahs will be delighted. They will view this as weakness. And they will find such weakness provocative, as tyrants always do...We are encouraging our enemies to invest in increasingly advanced weapons technologies in the belief that, at a time of their choosing, they will be able to overwhelm our outdated system.
I think the people of Europe might be starting to get the message about this President we have.
Why should they ever trust us again. BO has undone 30 years’ worth of progress. Ronald Reagan must be spinning in his grave.
The media convinced them that BO was going to make things all better. Looks like somebody forgot to ask “For whom?”
Clifford May sums it up very precisely and concisely.
This will embolden our enemies and weaken our allies. Worst of all, it kicks in the face those brave people in Poland and Eastern Europe who have stuck their necks out, in the face of the burgeoning Russian threat, to work with America, while it empowers the EU Surrender Monkeys.
I don't think the people of Eastern Europe have ever been under any illusions about "the one"; communism lingers too fresh in their memory.
Yes, thought he did a good job of outlining what is at stake.
My one wish? That we bring all of our troops home now from all over the globe.
We’re going to need them on American soil in very short order...
F 'em all.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2342024/posts?page=5
Yeah. I understand the ‘looking weak’ aspect of my wish. I’m just growing more and more concerned about safety here at home.
I am too. Given the way this administration is running things, I predict another terror attack on American soil under the misguidance of Obama. But...what is going on in Europe is ugly, ugly and whether we like it or nor, we are involved. We have just caved to the Russians, without the Russians offering to do anything in return.
Ah, don’t conflate all Europeans with those grotesque German(?) hippies.
Pro-American Poles and Czechs have gone out on a limb, and Bambi has sawn it off. Anti-American Poles and Czechs are laughing, even as they praise Obama. This is a cluster-frack of enormous proportions.
Are you sure they’re European? They have shaved armpits. But then hippies don’t either. I’m sooo confused...
You have to feel for the valiant Poles. How many times will they be sold out? The Russians sold them out to the Nazis, FDR sold them out to the Soviets, and now this. Who was there on D-Day landing right along side us? The Polish First Armored Division that went on to seal the victory in Normandy in a one day epic battle with the SS at Falaise that cost them 2,300 men. Who finally stood up to the Soviet Communists? The Poles with their Polish Pope beside them. This is a sorry way to treat such a brave nation.
Yeah, I know, and I do feel sorry for those few brave souls afloat in the European sea of socialism. But everyone is better off not counting on the American federal government, including the American people.
I suppose now Europe will get the opportunity to defend themselves. lol.
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