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Russia 'drops missile plans due to Obama change to US attitude'
 Russia has dropped plans to install missiles near Poland after the Obama administration signalled a change in US attitude to the region, a Moscow military official has reportedly said.
| Obama got rolled. Over the next few months that will be as common as 'dog bites man'. |
| 'Rolled' suggests he doesn't understand or accept the consequences. I'm not sure I believe that. |
| I'm not completely sure either, but he is rather clueless about a lot of stuff ... |
The official suggested that Mr Obama's White House had made clear it would not prioritise executing the Bush administration's plan to install a missile defence shield in Poland and the Czech Republic.
| Thus undercutting the Poles and Czechs who stuck their necks out for us. And sending a signal to any other country around the world that trusted the word of the U.S. prior to January 20th. This takes us back to the old Carter days when we actively undercut countries that formerly had been our allies, all to gain the approval of the Euro-left. |
An unnamed official in the Russian military's general staff said: "The implementation of these plans has been halted in connection with the fact that the new US administration is not rushing through plans to deploy" elements of its missile defence shield in eastern Europe, according to the Interfax news agency.
| 'Not rushing' in this case is a prelude to deleting the funding for the project in next year's defense budget. |
Vladimir Putin, the Russian Prime Minister, had warned that the US shield - which the Bush White House said was necessary to defend against potential attacks from the Middle East - would be interpreted by Moscow as a direct provocation.
| Carrying water for the Iranians, since he knows the missiles aren't aimed at him. The only other explanation is that the Russian offensive missile capacity isn't nearly as good as the West thinks: that while we think they could overwhelm our defensive shield with sheer numbers, perhaps -- after the incompetence, lack of maintenance, and lack of upgrades -- they really can't. |
Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian President, announced in November that in response, Moscow would place short-range Iskander missiles in the western enclave of Kaliningrad.
| Which used to be called 'Prussia'. The Iskanders are offensive and clearly would threaten NATO. And Obama is going to cave. |
Washington had previously obtained agreements with Poland and the Czech Republic for the installation of the shield, which it said would plug a gap in its global missile defence system.
| More importantly, it would shield eastern and central Europe from whatever long-range missiles Iran could produce in the next couple of decades. Obama is making clear, with this act and with his letter to Iran, that he simply doesn't consider them to be a threat. And that isn't what he said in the campaign. |
It said the shield was necessary to guard against long-range missiles that Iran was working to develop. The proposed system had received Nato-wide backing.
| Because the Euros understood the threat and they also understood that Uncle Sam had the only counter. Now that's going to go away. The only defense the Euros will have against an Iranian threat of a long-range, nuclear-tipped missile will be 'talk'. And we already know how well that works. |
Plans for the system were accelerated after the conflict between Russia and Georgia last year.
| Because we saw the need to make clear to Putin that his actions had consequences. Now Putin will be emboldened to try more stunts. |
Posted by: Steve White 2009-01-29 |
