The AFP is reporting that despite pulling the ground based mid-course interceptor from Europe, the Russians remain unhappy with Noble Laureate Obama's missile defense plans. Ivan is, of course, playing the classic Russian game here -- push until you meet resistance. In a terrible lapse of judgment, the White House demonstrated to Moscow that they can extract concessions simply by throwing a fit over purportedly "destabilizing" weapon systems. That's why it was such an enormous error to allow Russia to tie conventional defense systems into the START follow-on treaty -- it allows the Russians to weaken us through careful exploitation of President Obama's myopic "world without nukes" initiatives.
Since taking office 9 months ago, the White House has cut the Airborne Laser, F-22 Raptor, the Army's future combat systems, the Reliable Replacement Warhead, the VH-71 helicopter, was blocked by the Senate when they tried to slash the indispensable C-17 cargo jet, and has shown no interest in unraveling the Gordian Knot that is the KC-X tanker program. The Russians smell blood, and will continue to aggressively manipulate the White House's foreign policy until we're either completely impotent in Eastern Europe or until President Obama realizes that Putin doesn't share his vision of a fuzzy global utopia.
