Posted by
Bert Chapman on Thursday, September 17, 2009 4:43:53 PM
The ghost of Neville Chamberlain entered the White House recently as the Obama Administration had to decide whether to maintain the Bush Administration's commitment to build missile defenses in Eastern Europe. Sadly, Obama has proven ignorant of history and of emerging geostrategic realities. His decision to not continue building a missile defense system in Eastern Europe is a triumph of stupidity and will increase the security threat to our eastern European NATO allies (especially Poland) from a resurgent Russia and from Iranian nuclear weapon aspirations.
We now have the sad spectacle of an administration that does not keep commitments to our allies, fails to understand that the only thing that powers such as Russia and Iran understand is military force and the quality weapons and national will to use such force against the threats these regimes pose to Eurasian security. Vladimir Putin, his sidekick Dimitry Medvedev, and the mullahs in Tehran must be dancing jigs or other celebratory dances as they contemplate how they have rolled the dimwitted Messiah who seduced the world with his empty rhetoric of "change we can believe in." Sadly, the change this decision brings increases the likelihood of war in a geographic arena ranging from the Baltic to the Caspian Sea. This decision also has a chilling affect on the aspirations of individuals in countries such as Georgia and Ukraine who will now face even greater coercive pressure from an emboldened Moscow. It also places serious doubts on our willingness to continue fighting against Islamist terror in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere and will also be met with rejoicing in Pyongyang and Caracas by the anti-American and tyrannical North Korean and Venezuealan regimes.
Instead of bringing an early 21st century version of "peace in our time," this decision increases the possibility of anti-American regimes unleashing greater terrorism, asymmetric warfare, and even the dogs of war itself within the next few years. Barack Obama has proven he doesn't have the cojones, strategic wisdom, or moral courage to understand the historical reality that military power and the willingness to use such power without mercy or hesitation is the only means of preserving peace and U.S. national security interests.