Obama Missile Defense Blunder
The U.S. decision to cancel deployment of a ballistic missile defense system in Central Europe in favor of boosting shorter-range defenses creates immediate policy problems for the Obama administration:
It shreds agreements with the Czech Republic and Poland, undermining U.S. credibility; it may encourage Iranian long-range ballistic missile development; and, although it’s an apparent concession to Russia, Moscow has offered nothing in return.
Barack Obama now proposes a phased deployment plan centered on the Navy’s Standard Missile-3 (SM-3). Beginning in 2011
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What does not make sense is the administration’s argument that the new intelligence assessment affords us the opportunity to scuttle the Central European deployment in favor of developing a more capable sea-based defense against long-range ballistic missiles.
There are two problems with this effort to make the better the enemy of the good.
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