Sometimes you have to wonder if Obama is trying to marginalize himself. Granted, it was Bush's program to protect our allies in Poland and the Czech Republic against an increasingly belligerent Russian Bear and it is Obama's prerogative to dismantle it. But to what end? Even if you don't give a rat's rear-end about allies, the shield served as America's first line of defense against a missile attack by rogue states like Iran.
The bitter irony for Poland is that today is the 70th anniversary of the 1939 Soviet invasion of their homeland.
And even some Democrats are wondering what the hell the new boss is doing.
From The Hill.
Senators reacted with bipartisan concern Thursday over the Obama administration’s decision to scrap a missile defense system in Eastern Europe, saying Congress and foreign allies were kept in the dark. . . .
Significantly, the senior Republicans were joined by a handful of moderate Democrats on the Armed Services Committee who said they want to see the intelligence behind the decision.
“I want to review what intelligence exists for that conclusion,” said Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.). “Obviously the White House can’t consult with Congress on everything, but there are some things that are important enough, particularly as it relates to national defense. And there are some of us who have supported very strongly this defense system in the past — it seems we should have had some advance notice.”
“I’m concerned about scrapping it,” added Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), also a committee member. “I think missile defense is a very, very important part of our arsenal.”
But Nancy Pelosi liked the deal, calling it ”brilliant.” And Carl Levin says Poland and the Czech Republic were just fine with the whole deal.
The decision announced Thursday morning followed late-night phone calls to Czech and Polish officials, and at least one senior Democrat — Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) — said those countries had no problem with the decision.
Except Levin apparently was talking out of something other than his mouth.
But Aleksander Szczyglo, a security adviser to [Polish] President Lech Kaczynski, who supported the Bush missile project, complained that the new plan signifies a "failure" of long-term U.S. security planning for Central Europe.
But the Russians and Iranians really were okay with the deal, which says volumes about how effective Obama's cooler, new, 'smart-power' system will be in deterring those thuggish regimes. When your adversaries like your new defense system better than your old one, maybe you had better think twice.
The change comes days before Obama is to meet with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev at the United Nations and the Group of 20 economic summit. Medvedev reacted positively, calling it a "responsible move."
"The U.S. president's decision is a well-thought-out and systematic one," said Konstantin Kosachev, head of the foreign affairs committee in the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian Parliament. "Now we can talk about restoration of the strategic partnership between Russia and the United States."
At the same time, Russia's top diplomat warned that Moscow remains opposed to new punitive sanctions on Iran to stop what the West contends is a drive toward nuclear weapons.
The spokesman of Iran's parliamentary committee on national security and foreign policy, Kazem Jalali, called the decision positive, though in a backhanded way.
"It would be more positive if President Obama entirely give up such plans, which were based on the Bush administration's Iran-phobic policies," Jalali told The Associated Press.
Let's not forget, the Poles and Czechs already did the suffering-for-decades thing under the weight of the Iron Curtain, because the appeasers in Britain (thanks Neville Chamberlain) thought they could make a despot happy by sacrificing those countries in the name of a can't-we-all-just-get-along foreign policy.
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