A Stab in the Back

Canceling the missile shield betrays our allies.
The Weekly Standard
by Jamie M. Fly
09/28/2009, Volume 015, Issue 02

President Obama's decision to cancel plans for U.S. missile defense sites in Poland and the Czech Republic is a knife in the back for those countries. The implications for U.S. security and the transatlantic relationship are profound. Critics rightly note that the sudden announcement Thursday sends a dangerous message to allies, both in Europe and elsewhere, who rely on U.S. security guarantees.

Even those who agree with the administration's approach concede that the rollout was clumsy--middle of the night phone calls and little prior consultation. In July 2007, Senator Obama criticized his predecessor for this very thing. The Bush administration, he said, had "done a poor job of consulting its NATO allies about the deployment of a missile defense system that has major implications for all of them."

In addition to the geopolitical implications of this con-cession to Russia, there are several major problems with the administration's plan...

It seems to me that we have an administration that is more interested in and feels it has more in common with our enemies than it does our allies.