Obama didn't want or select the date. The decision had been leaked
[QUOTE=Doppelganger]Perhaps you are correct, perhaps not as we can argue the point forever as we are both dedicated to our points of view.
BUT. Could he not have made his decision public on another day rather than on the anniversary of Russia's invasion of the country?[/QUOTE]Reports have made it clear the Administration rushed to get the Obama, Gates and Mullen statements out after someone leaked the story.
There were people in Poland and the Czech Republic who saw big bucks disappear as a result of this and they had an incentive to embarrass Obama with a leak to the press on this exact date. Or some savvy Cold Warrior with a knowledge of history who learned what was up and dropped a dime.
It's how revenge politics works.
The date is ironic but insignificant
It is the action (inaction) that is so damaging.
Wildman --- On this one you don't have a clue what you're talking about!
Here is the background on the Reagan / Bush multi-billion dollar boondoggle "Star Wars" missile system's track record of test delays, failed launches, missed targets and cost over-runs.
The system was supposed to cost $47 billion to develop. Instead between 2002 and 2009 a total of $63 billion was spent on research, testing and evaluation. (I think Jackson was billed for most of that! And the system still doesn't work.
You decry "inaction" when Obama takes decisive action to stop throwing billions down a rat hole. As Hillary said if Obama was seen walking on water his critics would say "see he can't swim."
Of course, maybe you know more about missiles than 10 nobel lauriate scientists do. But, rather than just knee-jerk dissing of Obama, read what follows and learn something.
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Story from Ian Sample, the science correspondent of the London Guardian Newspaper.
Writes Mr. Sample:
"For a system designed to protect the country from nuclear oblivion, the US national missile defense project's history of failure has long raised eyebrows among scientists.
"Years of testing have seen rocket-propelled interceptors refuse to launch from their silos, fail to separate from their boosters and miss their targets, sometimes by hundreds of miles.
"Military officials can claim only a 50% hit rate, and only then in tests that are far removed from a real world attack scenario, said David Wright, a physicist and co-director of global security at the Union of Concerned Scientists in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
"Some tests were delayed for months because the weather was not considered good enough for the interceptor to find its target.
"When tests did go ahead, missile operators knew when the target would be launched and its trajectory in the sky. The missile system that was due to be installed in Europe had undergone even less rigorous testing. The plans included a two-stage interceptor which has yet to even begin flight tests.
"The radar intended to be installed in the Czech Republic has been used in tests to track targets from its base in the Kwajalein atoll in the Pacific Ocean. Technical studies by scientists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology show that Pentagon estimates of the radar's ability to detect incoming missiles from Iran were off by a factor of 100. The missiles would have produced too small a radar signature to be spotted in time.
"Wright said it was reasonable to assume Iran would be capable of confounding interceptor missiles that rely on heat-seeking infra-red sensors to home in on their targets. "They will definitely be motivated to work on counter-measures and they could defeat the interceptor's sensors," he said.
"When people say how well the system works, the truth is it is impossible to know how well it will work because there's no realistic data," Wright added.
"Twenty leading scientists, including 10 Nobel laureates, wrote to President Obama in July to urge the administration to reconsider the European phase of the missile defense system.
"The planned European missile defense system would have essentially no capability to defend against a real missile attack. Independent and US governmental technical analyses have shown that any country that could field a long-range missile could also add decoys and other counter-measures to that missile that would defeat a defence system like that being proposed for Europe," the letter stated.
"The Obama administration's revised plan will use the Aegis ship-based weapons system, which could launch SM-3 interceptor missiles from the Mediterranean sea. The system is scheduled to be deployed in 2011."
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You know I actually thought Bush did a few good things like his helping Africa fight HIV. I said so at the time.
You might try being even-handed too. That way reasonable people won't think you're a whack job!
Former Bush officials won't go away
Barack Obama's speeches are getting right to the point of distribution in the USA.
Can't get away from the leeches.
His administration is a success.
Dick Cheney is in the hospital for surgery. I never heard from them during the administration. Karl Rove is on tv from time to time. Don Rumsfled and Karl Rove pulled in for questioning. Don Rumsfeld facing several international criminal trials and civil lawsuits.
He is cutting out much of the fat. Big deals going his way. Next election wondering who's for him, who's against.
Update - Russia Cancels Missile Deployments - Poles support Obama
Russia has announced it will remove it's short-range missiles from Kaliningrad in response to Obama's decision to eliminate the Bush plan to install US missile defenses in Poland and the Czech Republic.
A Medeved spokesman said: "Reason has prevailed over ambitions. Naturally we will cancel countermeasures which Russia has planned in response."
Meanwhile, although Republicans and the US right wing press portrayed Obama's decision to cancel missiles based in Poland as "turning our back on an ally", the Polish people applaud it.
A new poll shows strong support for the move among the Poles with 48% of respondents saying decision was good and only 31% disagreeing. While 58% , agree the move would have no impact on Poland's security.
The Red Menace Is Back! Where's Ronnie?
[QUOTE=Sidney]Lies, from dictators that never honor contracts! But O means well![/QUOTE]Did I miss something?
Do Republican Presidents have problems with "premature exclamation." In addition to W, did Reagan claim "Mission Accomplished" before the job was done?
I thought Ronnie destroyed that evil commie empire when he almost single-handedly won the Cold War. Are you telling me the bastards are still hiding under my bed?
Here I saw the O Man turning good intentions into good policy.
He defuses a pointless and dangerous pissing contest with Russia - dumps a useless weapons system - that non-ideologues or guys not on the take from contractors in the Pentagon didn't want - because it doesn't work - one the recipient countries were bribed to take when they had opposed the idea - for use against threats the people in those countries don't fear - because the threats don't exist - and he saves tens of billions of tax dollars.
He goes ahead with a plan to use weapons that do work - that the generals in the Pentagon designed - that NATO and our key European allies prefer - that are scaled to the actual threat.
(Is it a good or bad thing that a lower Pentagon missile budget may mean Jackson can have more money to use on his own missile!
But, for some, if it's the O man, a good thing just ain't good enough!
Strange world we live in!
