Obama to Eastern Europe: Drop dead (Rep. Ed Royce)

Over the past few months, the Iranian regime has stolen an election, cracked the skulls of dissidents, and made a former Revolutionary Guards leader defense minister.  Oh, and in February it successfully launched a satellite into orbit using the same technology needed for an ICBM.  But, the threat from the Iranian long-range missile program has decreased.  That's the Obama Administration line as it scraps planned missile defense sites in Eastern Europe aimed at countering the Iranian threat.  Given how analysts botched the 2007 intelligence assessment that concluded that Iran wasn't pursuing a nuclear weapons program, I'll side with today's Washington Times news report that the Iranian missile program is getting significant support from China, North Korea, and even Russia.  Yes, the threat is real.  

Today's announcement is a complete reversal of plans developed by the last Administration to place a radar station in the Czech Republic and 10 interceptors in Poland to guard Europe and the U.S. against Iranian long-range missiles.  When those plans where announced, the Russians went, um...ballistic, attacking the proposed sites as a threat to Russian security, despite much evidence to the contrary.  Essentially, this U.S.-Russia standoff was always about Russia's ambitions to diminish U.S. clout and reassert power westward, not its national security.  The Obama Administration is standing down.
The only countries touting this decision are Russia ("well thought out") and Iran ("the U.S. has reached the conclusion that Iran is not a threat.")  Meanwhile, Warsaw and Prague - whose governments have withstood threats from Moscow - are hung-out to dry.  Amazingly, the announcement comes on the 70th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland.  Ouch.  As the bad news started leaking out, State and Defense Department officials had to scramble to Europe to sugarcoat it.  So much for the "smart" diplomacy we've heard so much about.

As they say, people are policy.  One of the Obama officials putting the nail in these missile defenses is Under Secretary of State Ellen Tauscher.  As a member of Congress, she was a leading opponent of the system.  A legacy of Ronald Reagan, the Left has always despised missile defense.

Today's announcement comes as world powers prepare for new - we mean it this time - talks on Iran's nuclear program.  One line of thought has it that sacrificing missile defense deployment will make Russia more cooperative in tackling Iran's nuclear program -- a fantasy.  Why would Russia compromise its deepening relationship with Iran for what it surely understands is our relatively minor and unthreatening defensive deployment?  Moscow plays the game better that that.

Missile defense is our last line of defense.  When things like negotiations and sanctions fail, it will be needed, urgently.  Today's capitulation makes us less safe.  There's no way around it. 

Cross-posted from the Foreign Intrigue blog.