Legal Commentary

Obama Scraps Missile Defense System Based In Eastern Europe

By Big Tent Democrat

Last August I wrote about the insane Bush Administration decision to announce a missile defense shield in Poland WHILE the Caucasus crisis was at its height. If we can say nothing else about the Obama Administration, we can applaud its sanity on foreign affairs (knowing that most of you disagree with the President, and me, on his Afghanistan policy.) The Obama Administration is scrapping the missile defense system based in Poland:

The Obama administration plans to announce on Thursday that it will scrap former President George W. Bush’s planned missile defense system in Eastern Europe and instead deploy a reconfigured system aimed more at intercepting shorter-range Iranian missiles, according to people familiar with the plans. President Obama decided not to deploy a sophisticated radar system in the Czech Republic or 10 ground-based interceptors in Poland, as Mr. Bush had planned. Instead, the new system his administration is developing would deploy smaller SM-3 missiles at first aboard ships and later probably either in southern Europe or Turkey, according to those familiar with the plans.

Now, many of you will see the new plan as an unnecessary provocation of Iran. And perhaps it is. But surely no one can equate Russia and Iran at this point in history, can they? Well, I can't at least.

Speaking for me only

Full post as published by TalkLeft on September 17, 2009 (boomark / email).