Detente In Our Time - Obama Prepares To Sell Out Poland In The Face Of Russian Aggression. Again. (Plus: By The Way, Missile Defense Works)
Entire volumes are needed to describe each of the many, many times that the free world has betrayed Poland. Save the Western world from the armies of Islam in the 1600s? Get sliced up in the 1700s. Stop the Red Army's march to Berlin at Vistula during the interwar period? Get handed over to Hitler and Stalin before being shamefully betrayed to the Evil Empire at Yalta. Enthusiastically support the US during the Iraq War and fight bravely on the front lines? Whatever:
Poland has deployed 2,500 of its best soldiers to Iraq. It sent $64 million worth of its newest equipment - which operations in Iraq will ruin. Warsaw selected its finest officers to command and staff the Multinational Division Center South. A Polish major general commands a total of 12,000 troops from 22 nations with responsibility for a sector previously held by twice as many U.S. Marines. The Polish performance has been flawless. [But] like the Czech Republic, which sent a few medics to the Persian Gulf then withdrew them in panic, Poland will get a standard package of $12 million for NATO-related programs... Strategic peanuts for our most enthusiastic ally on the European continent... Warsaw asked for $47 million to modernize six used, American-built C-130 transport aircraft and to purchase American-built HMMWV all-terrain vehicles so elite Polish units could better integrate operations with American forces... We stiffed them.
And now Poland has stuck its neck out and offered to let us put anti-missile interceptors on their soil. The point is to track and destroy any Iranian missiles launched at Europe - missiles like, say, the ones they just tested. This automatically puts Poland on the front line of any any missile attack: theoretically, all the other targets only become vulnerable after the US-NATO missile shield is disabled. And if it's a nuclear war then those are the warheads that will be raining down on the Poles.
But the Poles have already taken a huge geopolitical gamble even if there's never a war - just by taking our side they've exposed themselves to Russia's wrath. Putin's surrogates immediately threatened strategic and diplomatic retaliation and then moved missiles to Eruope's border to show that they're serious. Just yesterday Russia again took the time to remind everybody that, yes they're still pretty pissed.
So of course the Obama administration - having seen the huge risk that the Poles took to support us - is rushing to support them in return:
The Polish president's office backtracked Sunday on a previous claim that U.S. president-elect Barack Obama had promised Poland to continue the Bush administration's multibillion-dollar missile defense program. Presidential aide Michal Kaminski said Obama "made no declaration on missile defense."... In an interview on TVN24 news Sunday, Kaminski said Kaczynski and Obama talked on the phone late Friday about Polish-U.S. military cooperation, but that Obama "did not make any promises specifically regarding the shield."
And if you're wondering how that decision's going to play out, here's Biden to clear things up. Obama's excuse thus far has been that the system doesn't work. Well apparently it does - although Obama may or may not be willing to hear that:
The first fight between the Obama team and a member of the military leadership may be brewing - over missile defense. Yesterday, outgoing Missile Defense Agency chief Lt. Gen. Trey Obering appeared to take a veiled shot at the incoming national security team yesterday, calling their knowledge about the interceptor effort "dated." "... a lot of the folks that have not been in this administration seem to be dated... Those that have not been intimately involved in this over these past several years typically don’t have that accurate information." Over the weekend, President-elect Obama refused to commit to putting interceptors in Eastern Europe; the Bush administration has been pushing such a plan for years... Earlier this year, Obama pledged to "cut investments in unproven missile defense systems." On his campaign website, Obama said he would "support missile defense, but ensure that it is developed in a way that is pragmatic and cost-effective; and, most importantly, does not divert resources from other national security priorities until we are positive the technology will protect the American public."
Yeah - they're unproven to the experts surrounding Obama who haven't seen a classified report since the Clinton administration and just assume the military is lying to them. But hey - let's cut the program and sell out one of our most enthusiastic Polish allies anyway. Why not?
No wonder Putin is giddy about getting to kick Obama around.
References:
* I Saw Poland Betrayed: An American ambassador reports to the American people by Arthur Bliss Lane [Amazon]
* Shafting the Poles [Ralph Peters]
* Iran Rejects Talks With Obama, Foreign Policy Sophisticates Confused [MR]
* Missile Offense [WSJ]
* Detente In Our Time - Russia Moves Missiles To NATO's Border, Obama And EU Prepare To Cave [MR]
* US rejects missile shield offer
* Poland: Obama made no promise on missile defense [JPost]
* Poland president: Biden says no missile decision [JPost]
* Obama to be told U.S. missile defense capable, general says
* Obama, General in Missile Defense Showdown? (Updated) [Danger Room]
* For Russia's Putin, knockabout with Obama is just the ticket [Breitbart]
Previously:
* Shockingly, New Toothless UN Resolution Fails To Slow Iranian Enrichment (Plus: Maybe Obama Can Talk To Them About It!)
* Libya Getting Hooked Up With Russian Nuclear Tech
* Great News: Arctic Melting Promises New Resources, Geopolitical Disaster (Plus: Dems Killing Our Nuclear Deterrent)
