QUOTE OF THE DAY - AT 8:38 A.M. ET:  From Seth Cropsey, in the Weekly Standard, on Obama's abandonment of the East European missile shield:

The likely harm that results from this decision goes far beyond Europe. The U.S. has security commitments to Israel, Japan, and South Korea for example. How are leaders in those and other countries likely to regard the Obama administration's failure to honor American security commitments? Does President Obama understand that the United States' interest in keeping its word transcends his own political interest in continuing to distance himself from his predecessor?

The Obama administration has decided to dishonor a security commitment made to one of the United States' most reliable and dependable democratic allies, and to placate an increasingly authoritarian corrupt state that helped Iran build its nuclear power plant at Bushehr and supplies Iran with significant military equipment such as air-defense missiles. The decision is a sign of weakness, a confirmation that this administration does not see value in defending against ballistic missiles, and a wholesale invitation to aggressive behavior, not just from Russia.

COMMENT:  That is very well said.  We will be inundated with all kinds of excuses and justifications for Obama's decision to pull the promised missile shield from our allies, Poland the Czech Republic.  We will be told that the Joint Chiefs favored the decision.

But the issue isn't military, or scientific, it's political.  Militarily, there may be some short-term justification for putting the emphasis elsewhere, but there can be no long-term justification for canceling a system designed to counter the long-range missiles Iran will eventually have.  And, scientifically, the missile defense system has been consistently improved.  It may never be perfect, but neither has any defense system known to man. 

It's the politics that damage us.  We made a commitment to allies.  We broke the commitment.  Both those allies have helped us in Iraq and Afghanistan.  They will not help us in the future.

And who will trust us? 

September 18, 2009