Missile shield doubletalk

By Jennifer J. Foster

Published: February 12, 2009

We’re beginning to hear a little more about the Obama Administration’s position on U.S. missile defense.

Vice President Joe Biden told diplomats gathered at a European security conference in Munich last week that the United States would press ahead with plans to construct and deploy the long-awaited defense system.

... With a couple of caveats.

According to Reuters, “only if it was proven to work and was cost effective,“ Biden said.

One: It has been proven to work. If Obama/Biden/Clinton didn’t get the memo, they can read my blog item about it—and get a terse lecture from retired Lt. Gen. Trey Obering, who oversaw the missile defense program—here.

Two: Cost effective? Are we really having this discussion when Congress is about to give away another $800 billion in taxpayer money on programs that even their supporters aren’t sure will work as they’re intended?

And while we’re on the subject, is there a price on the security of American servicemen and women stationed and deployed in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, or on the American ability to meet our commitments to protect our allies in the region?

So Biden’s “only if” clause was clearly meant to provide the Obama Administration with an “out” on the missile shield.

If there was any doubt, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stepped to a microphone on Tuesday and clarified things:

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Tuesday a final decision on deployment of a missile shield in eastern and central Europe hinged in part on Iran’s willingness to curb its nuclear ambitions.

“This is one of those issues that really will rest with the decisions made by the Iranian government,“ Clinton said of plans to install radar in the Czech Republic and interceptor rockets in Poland to shield against ballistic missiles fired by “rogue” countries like Iran.

“If we are able to see a change in behaviour on the part of the Iranians with respect to what we believe to be their pursuit of nuclear weapons, then we will reconsider where we stand,“ she told reporters after meeting Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg.

Ah. So now our defenses are up to Iranian whims.

Our relationship with the Iranian regime hasn’t exactly been great. I’m pretty sure that hardliners there still call the U.S. “The Great Satan.“

And that’s a step up from what they call Israel.

By the way ... and this may or may not be relevant ... but Russia sells Iran missiles.

Just in case anyone wanted to know.

This open equivocation at the highest levels of the Obama Administration explains why our allies are getting nervous:

Poland and the Czech Republic urged President Barack Obama to press ahead with plans for an anti- missile shield in Europe, saying Russia “must not have a veto” over the system.

The U.S. project to site interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar facility in the Czech Republic, both former Soviet satellites, binds the U.S. and Europe together and would strengthen the NATO military alliance, Czech Deputy Prime Minister Alexandr Vondra said at the Munich Security Conference.

“Therefore it is also important to develop the future missile-defense system, which would protect us against increasing threats of WMD proliferation in the Middle East,” Vondra said, referring to weapons of mass destruction. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told the same meeting that his government “still agrees” to host the system.

I have nothing against diplomacy first. I’m all for it. But I don’t want our military men and women exposed to threats that we have the ability to stop if and/or when it fails.