Posted by
Dave Ficere on Friday, September 18, 2009 11:56:52 AM
In addition to "racist" Conservatives, you can now add the Polish and Czech governments to the list of groups condemning President Obama's policies. That's because both governments today are criticizing Obama's decision to scrap a Bush Administration plan for a missile defense system to protect Eastern Europe against attacks by Iran or other countries. "Betrayal! The U.S. sold us to Russia and stabbed us in the back," the Polish tabloid Fakt declared on its front page. Meanwhile, Polish President Lech Kaczynski expressed concern that Obama's new strategy leaves Poland in a dangerous "gray zone" between Western Europe and the old Soviet sphere. "No Radar. Russia won," the largest Czech daily, Mlada Fronta Dnes, declared in a front-page headline.
The Bush administration viewed the planned system, which included a radar near Prague and interceptors in northern Poland as a defense against Iran. While that's true, Poles and Czechs saw it as protection against Russia. Moscow, happy with Obama's decision, saw the potential military installation in its backyard to be a threat. In a foolish and shortsighted gamble, Obama said the old plan was scrapped in part, " because the U.S. has concluded that Iran is less focused on developing the kind of long-range missiles for which the system was originally developed, making the building of an expensive new shield unnecessary."
I guess the Obama Administration missed the memo about Iran developing and testing long-range missiles capable of striking Hawaii or the Western U.S. Hopefully, Poland, the Czech Republic and the West won't live to regret the Administration's appeasement of and capitulation to Moscow and Iran.