Indefensible [National Review Editorial]

National Review ^ | September 17, 2009

[Steelfish]

September 17, 2009

Indefensible

By the Editors

President Obama knows how to put a smile on faces in Tehran and Moscow: This morning, he announced the abandonment of plans to develop a small missile-defense system in Eastern Europe.

This overturns one of the major diplomatic and national-security achievements of the Bush years. When George W. Bush came into office in 2001, the United States lacked long-range missile defenses. Today, Americans enjoy a rudimentary shield against North Korea as it strives to produce intercontinental ballistic missiles.

There is no such protection for the United States or Europe against a similar threat from Iran, but agreements to build a powerful radar in the Czech Republic and to base interceptors in Poland had put NATO on a course for preparedness.

The decision to undo this progress is disappointing but comes as no surprise. Ablaze with ideological fervor, liberals have long fought missile defense, particularly since Ronald Reagan proposed the Strategic Defense Initiative. They’re reluctant to oppose deployed systems, which are popular with the public, but eager to take on programs in development.

The Obama administration has continued this misbegotten habit by seeking to slash the funding for key missile-defense technologies. For months, the administration has hinted that today’s reversal was imminent.

[La Lydia]

"That’s an example of short-range thinking. A robust system of missile defense never has demanded such trade-offs. Instead, it calls for a sophisticated architecture that counters threats in different forms. Intelligence estimates have forecast that Iran could develop intercontinental rockets by 2015. Obama and Gates insisted that these estimates are mistaken. If Iran has in fact slowed down its work in this area — a claim that national-security experts have questioned — it may have been in response to American determination to construct a NATO-approved system in Eastern Europe. Today’s announcement may persuade Tehran to reconsider and look for ways to exploit a new vulnerability.

"As Donald Rumsfeld once warned, weakness is provocative."

[SonOfDarkSkies]

Wanna bet some of the cash from slashed missile defense programs finds its way back to ACORN (whatever its new name) and the unions?

[La Lydia]

RUSSIAN PRESIDENT DMITRY MEDVEDEV comments approvingly:

"We value the U.S. president's responsible approach toward implementing our agreements ... I am ready to continue the dialogue." (When he meets Obama in New York on September 23) "we will have a good opportunity to exchange views on all aspects of strategic stability, including anti-missile defense"

"I believe that we will proceed with giving orders to the respective bodies in our two countries to step up cooperation, including on attracting European and other interested nations," he said of a meeting with

"We will work together to forge efficient measures to counter the risks of missile proliferation, measures that would allow us to take into account the interests and concerns of all parties and ensure equal security for all the nations in the European arena."

[End Times Sentinel]

Don’t you conservatives see: If we’re nice to our enemies, they’ll become our friends!

All this nonsense about good and evil. I can’t see the difference, therefore, it doesn’t exist... like God.

[NonValueAdded]

To say nothing about the timing of the announcement.

[La Lydia]

The timing was part of the signal to the Russians.

[Aevery_Freeman]

Yes, it is timely. This administration is formidable in misdirection.

Constant pummeling by disastrous move after treacherous machination is tiresome. Today's threat becomes yesterday's specter.

It's hard keeping up.

[JasonC]

The timing was, it is the 70th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland, in alliance with Hitler, in the opening days of WW II. He literally told the Poles we will not defend them on the 70th anniversary of the Russian invasion of their country as a stab in the back while they were fighting for their lives. It is a special kind of commie sick to announce a thing like this on that date.

[OpeEdMunkey]

I guess Obama wants to go back to Mutually Assured Destruction. Does this mean we’ll see a resurgence in the US nuclear weapons program. Probably not, huh.

[luvbach1]

RUSSIAN PRESIDENT DMITRY MEDVEDEV comments approvingly: We will work together to forge efficient measures to counter the risks of missile proliferation [by the US and its allies].

[La Lydia]

Obviously.

[Billthedrill]

Five months ago, at a speech in Prague, Obama saluted their efforts: “The Czech Republic and Poland have been courageous in agreeing to host a defense against [Iranian] missiles.” But those are mere words. Today’s actions speak louder.

"My previous statement on the topic is inoperative." Richard Nixon