Obama Scraps Missile Defense in Eastern Europe

A 21st Century Munich

President Barack Obama has announced that he is scrapping plans to construct a missile defense system in Eastern Europe against Iranian missile attack. This decision has elicited wide spread outrage and accusations of appeasement.

In his announcement, Obama claimed that the latest intelligence indicated that Iran's development of an intercontinental ballistic missile was proceeding slower than hitherto thought. President Obama also said the instead of the missile defense system started under the previous administration of George W. Bush, he would deploy Aegis sea based ballistic missile defense ships to be followed by land based Patriot missiles to defend against short and intermediate range missiles from Iran.

Many foreign policy and defense experts dispute President Obama's assertion that Iran's development of an ICBM had slowed. Former UN Ambassador John Bolton, among others, has suggested that the intelligence is, at best, uncertain. Iran recently launched its first satellite into low Earth orbit, a sign that they are near to ICBM capability/

The decision to scrap missile defense in Eastern Europe will be hard to reverse if the intelligence is proven wrong. Obama has lost the trust of the leaders and people of the region by taking this decision unilaterally.

President Obama's pontification about "smart power" would seem to be a fig leaf to cover up the real reason for the decision to scrap missile defense in Eastern Europe. That reason is to appease Vladimir Putin, the leader of Russia, who has been unrelentingly hostile to building a missile defense system in Eastern Europe, which he regards as his sphere of influence.

Unfortunately, as the Obama administration admits, there has not been a solid quid pro quo from the Russians for the scrapping of missile defense in Eastern Europe. The Obama administration hopes that Russia will now be more forthcoming on the subject of sanctions against Iran. Russia has made no such promises.