More Tone Deafness from the Obama Administration

We're canceling putting 10 missiles there to appease Russia and angering Poland and the Czech Republic. Ok, fair enough. I disagree with the decision as I think we should support our friends, not appease our rivals. What makes this worse is the date. It was announced on the 70th anniversary of the Russian invasion of Poland. Emphasis added. [Link]

I'll leave the question of whether President Obama's decision to abandon a planned missile defense of Poland and the Czech Republic is good or bad policy. As a matter of timing, however, it's surely bad politics. There's surely a better day to make such an announcement than the 70th anniversary of Stalin's invasion of Poland.

Some think it was a good idea, but what concessions will we get for this? [Link]

The Obama administration has an opportunity to turn its decision — which so far seems tentative and even reluctant — into a unilateral display of U.S. strength and confidence, and thereby seize the high ground on arms reduction while warning one of the world’s most recalcitrant proliferators that the game will soon be over. Hopefully, this is an opportunity the president and his advisers will seize.

Even the Democrats are asking what we are getting. [Link]

Republicans talked of President Obama “appeasing” Russia,” “betraying” Poland, and bringing back the Carter administration. They didn’t like his decision Thursday to scrap plans for a missle defense system in Poland and in the Czech Republic, and they dusted off some vintage Cold War anti-communist rhetoric and endorsements of missile defense to express it.

Obama and his aides cast the decision as almost a technical one. But for a president who has said repeatedly that he wants to return U.S. foreign policy to the hard-headed pursuit of national interests rather than scoring ideological points, it was also tangible evidence that he meant what he said.

Some members of Obama’s own party, however, had a simple question for the administration: if this was a return to realism, and a concession to Russia’s long and vocal opposition to the missile program, what, exactly, was the U.S. getting in return for fundamentally changing it?

We're winning friends and influencing people. [Link]

For a bunch that (loudly) prides themselves on "smart diplomacy," the Obama Administration has a tremendous knack for stupidity, to say nothing of historical ignorance. Two of our best friends in the world are less important to these academic twits than "being nice" to Putin and Ahmadinejad, to say nothing of their quarter-century outdated hostility towards missile defense ("you peon--that was a Reagan idea, therefore, it must be bad!").

In the East, seventy years ago, they called this kind of asinine policy the Western Betrayal. Shame on us to repeat the same shameful back-stabs now.

Nile Gardener:

What signal does this send to Ukraine, Georgia and a host of other former Soviet satellites who look to America and NATO for protection from their powerful neighbour? The impending cancellation of Third Site is a shameful abandonment of America’s friends in eastern and central Europe, and a slap in the face for those who actually believed a key agreement with Washington was worth the paper it was written on.

What did you expect from an ideology so blinkered it could look at those countries, most of them free for less than 20 years now, and call them "a motley collection of nations one could buy on eBay"?

Polish Prime Minister snubs after being snubbed. [Link]

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk confirmed today that he declined last night to take a call from the U.S. informing him of the decision to scrap planned missile-defense bases in his country.
Two U.S.-based sources close to the Polish government said Thursday that Tusk also rejected a call from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — on the grounds that, as the head of the government, he should speak to the president.
"Hillary called — and the reason he turned it down was because of protocol," said a source.
Questions about the exchanges surfaced in the Polish press after Obama reached the Czech prime minister late last night to warn of the policy change, but did not speak to the Pole until this morning. And the static offers a glimpse at the distress beneath the diplomatic facade being offered by Eastern European leaders.
Polish Radio reports today that Tusk confirmed an earlier press report that he hadn't taken Obama's call but denied it was due to "technical difficulties."

Tusk said he declined to speak with President Obama during the night because he wanted to “properly prepare for the discussion."

A Polish Embassy spokesman noted that Tusk ultimately spoke to Obama, while Clinton spoke to the country's foreign minister.