Posted by
halthouse1 on Saturday, September 19, 2009 7:30:56 AM
From The Political and Financial Markets Commentator (http://politicsandfinance.blogspot.com). Visit to sign-up for free feed or email delivery of new articles.
Huge Concession To Russia. Will Russia Do The Same For Us?
President Obama better hope so! When we meet with Russia at the G 20 and the U.N. General Assembly, we had better get backing from Russia on Iranian action, or the weakening of our defenses will have been in vain, and America under this administration will once again be viewed as weak and ineffectual at a great cost to the American people and others around the world.
Even if they make overtures of agreement on action against Iran, will they follow through? Will they still operate through the back door? We
know we have given up our plan, but how do we really know if the Russians ever give up theirs?
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev: "We appreciate the responsible approach of the U.S. president."
Of course he does!
"I discussed this issue with the U.S. president during our meetings in London and Moscow. At that time, in our joint statement, we agreed to, and set in stone that Russia and the United States will seek to work together to assess the risks of missile proliferation in the world."
All well and good, but what is Russia bringing to the table?
Excerpt from September 9th story here:
Eastern European Missile Defense: Da Comrades, Izvi`Neete
In it I made the following comments: "It now appears that the United States stands ready to abandon the plans for missile defense installations in Poland and Czechoslovakia. This at the urging of our "good" friends in Moscow. What do we stand to gain by weakening our ability to defend against longer range Iranian missiles.
We HOPE that through this appeasement, Moscow will end its shipments of materials to Iran that are actually assisting its program of developing nuclear weapons. We also hope that Moscow will then cease giving aid in the development of Iran's missile defenses designed to stop a pre-emptive strike on its nuclear weapons manufacturing facilities or nuclear weapons themselves. Quite a leap of faith!"
Yet cave to Russian pressure is exactly what we did! We know why the Russian President is smiling above, but why President Obama? Does he know something we don't know? I certainly hope so.
The Need For Strength Of One's Convictions
Secretary Of Defense Robert Gates said this on scrapping the old plan for the new: (
ABC News) “...The original program that I recommended would have had no capability against short and medium range missiles until probably 2018. What the new system provides is some capability beginning in 2011 that will grow steadily each year in terms of its sophistication and its coverage of Europe,” he added..."
Now Gates was there at the inception of the planned missile defense installations in Poland and Czechoslovakia during the Bush administration, citing its critical importance at the time. Now he is reversing that position. If he was honest then, he should resign in protest of this decision. If he is being honest now, then we need him to resign as well. What is the good to the security of our country if the Secretary of Defense is merely a pawn of the President with no convictions he is willing to stand behind?