Comments on: Report: Obama To Abandon European Missile Defense System

By: U.S Changes direction on Eastern European Nuclear-Missile Shield | Political Byline

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 19:59:44 +0000

[...] Jules Crittenden, Don Surber, Power Line, Moonbattery, Fausta’s Blog, , The Foundry, Below The Beltway, Moderate in the Middle, Neptunus Lex, A Blog For All, Dr. Sanity, , Michelle Malkin, [...]

By: Doug Mataconis

Doug Mataconis — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 16:12:33 +0000

Infernal,

Yes, absolutely right on your first point.

We’re long past the day when Europe was a Post-WW2 backwater and Eastern Europe was a Post-Soviet backwater. Let them ante up some money already.

By: InfernalDisaster

InfernalDisaster — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 14:54:37 +0000

By the way, I’m not saying the US should abandon NATO. What I am saying is that these expensive projects can be taken care by Europe if they are needed.

The idea that because we are allies with Europe the US should shoulder these expensive endeavors, is no longer justifiable. Europe can taken on a larger role in the defense of that region.

By: Doug Mataconis

Doug Mataconis — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 14:44:43 +0000

Vast,

Poland and the Czech Republic are already members of NATO, as are Hungary, Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Albania, and Croatia.

If that’s not a presence, what is ?

By: InfernalDisaster

InfernalDisaster — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 14:38:29 +0000

Sorry for typos, sent too early.

By: Vast

Vast — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 14:23:10 +0000

Honestly I think the missile system was more about creating an American footprint in Eastern Europe than it was about Russia or Iran.

During the cold war our presence in Europe was necessary. Had we not been there during the blockade of Berlin for instance, the cold war could have easily gone hot and Russia would have been knocking on the Doors of Paris before we got our troops back on the ground. While I think it’s time to tone down that foot print, both in Europe and Asia, I don’t believe that we should plan on leaving completely for some time to come.

By: tfr

tfr — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 14:12:04 +0000

Even if Putin rolls tanks into former Soviet territory, the US will do diddly-squat. He just carries too big of a stick.

By: Will Collier

Will Collier — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 14:06:53 +0000

I’d argue that a system this minimal self-evidently had nothing at all to do with Russia, and the fact that the Russians themselves loudly declared it to be a mortal threat says a lot more about their parochial politics than it does about any objective reality

I’m not sure whether you’re right or not about a lack of consensus to defend allies who’ve stuck with us under difficult circumstances, but consensus or not, turning our backs on free nations who we’ve sworn to defend–again, unfortunately–is at the very least deeply dishonorable.

By: Doug Mataconis

Doug Mataconis — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 13:43:46 +0000

Will,

There’s two problems I see with that argument.

First, the missile defense system was never intended or designed to deter a Russian attack and, in fact, I think it’s pretty clear that, given it’s proposed size and the relative superiority of Russian missiles over anything the Iranians might launch, it arguably never would have been able to stop such an attack.

Second, I’m not sure that anyone would’ve believed that there was ever a US military guarantee for Eastern Europe even if the missile defense had gone forward. We have no real troop presence there, and there doesn’t seem to be much consensus for American troops and money to defend Prague.

Finally, I think Jeff has a good point. To the extent this system ever really was aimed at sending a message to Russia, it was nothing more than a giant bluff

By: InfernalDisaster

InfernalDisaster — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 13:41:18 +0000

Since WWII the USA has been subsidizing Europes military, spending trillions defending that region of the wolrd. Europe benfitted greatly from this, allowing them to focus money on socialism instead miltary spending.

The USSR is gone and there is no major threat facing Euorpe, it is time for Europe to take care of themselves.