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To: shakes who wrote (324753)	9/17/2009 10:04:59 PM
From: mph	5 Recommendations Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793752

tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com John Bolton agrees with Mitt and thinks Gates is a sellout. I'm inclined to agree with him. Obama has done nothing but poke our friends in the eye and bow to our enemies.

To: shakes who wrote (324753)	9/17/2009 10:12:29 PM
From: jlallen	11 Recommendations Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793752

Actually, if you had a clue you'd know that it takes years to fully build and fully deploy the kind of ground based interceptors, radars, etc., which were planned for these systems....Five years from now the Iranians may have well have a much better long range capability...These are the kinds of decisions which need to be made now. J.

To: shakes who wrote (324753)	9/18/2009 9:10:04 AM
From: D. Long	1 Recommendation Respond to of 793752

since the Iranians only have short range missles... Only if you consider 1000 to 4000 miles "short range." 1000 miles is sufficient to reach Europe. fas.org

To: shakes who wrote (324753)	9/18/2009 9:53:27 AM
From: longnshort	3 Recommendations Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793752

Poles, Czechs: US missile defense shift a betrayal By VANESSA GERA, Associated Press Writer Vanessa Gera, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 21 mins ago WARSAW, Poland – Poles and Czechs voiced deep concern Friday at President Barack Obama's decision to scrap a Bush-era missile defense shield planned for their countries. "Betrayal! The U.S. sold us to Russia and stabbed us in the back," the Polish tabloid Fakt declared on its front page. Polish President Lech Kaczynski said he was concerned that Obama's new strategy leaves Poland in a dangerous "gray zone" between Western Europe and the old Soviet sphere. Recent events in the region have rattled nerves throughout central and eastern Europe, a region controlled by Moscow during the Cold War, including the war last summer between Russia and Georgia and ongoing efforts by Russia to regain influence in Ukraine. A Russian cutoff of gas to Ukraine last winter left many Europeans without heat. The Bush administration's plan would have been "a major step in preventing various disturbing trends in our region of the world," Kaczynski said in a guest editorial in the daily Fakt and also carried on his presidential Web site. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said he still sees a chance for Poles and Czechs to participate in the redesigned missile defense system. But that did not appear to calm nerves in Warsaw or Prague. Kaczynski expressed hopes that the U.S. will now offer Poland other forms of "strategic partnership." In Prague, Czech Foreign Minister Jan Kohout said he made two concrete proposal to U.S. officials on Thursday in hopes of keeping the U.S.-Czech alliance strong: for the U.S. to establish a branch of West Point for NATO members in Central Europe and to "send a Czech scientist on the U.S. space shuttle to the international space station." An editorial in Hospodarske Novine, a respected pro-business Czech newspaper, said: "an ally we rely on has betrayed us, and exchanged us for its own, better relations with Russia, of which we are rightly afraid." The move has raised fears in the two nations they are being marginalized by Washington even as a resurgent Russia leaves them longing for added American protection. The Bush administration always said that the planned system — with a radar near Prague and interceptors in northern Poland — was meant as defense against Iran. But Poles and Czechs saw it as protection against Russia, and Moscow too considered a military installation in its backyard to be a threat. "No Radar. Russia won," the largest Czech daily, Mlada Fronta Dnes, declared in a front-page headline. Obama said the old plan was scrapped in part because the U.S. has concluded that Iran is less focused on developing the kind of long-range missiles for which the system was originally developed, making the building of an expensive new shield unnecessary. The replacement system is to link smaller radar systems with a network of sensors and missiles that could be deployed at sea or on land. Some of the weaponry and sensors are ready now, and the rest would be developed over the next 10 years. The Pentagon contemplates a system of perhaps 40 missiles by 2015, at two or three sites across Europe.

To: shakes who wrote (324753)	9/18/2009 1:58:34 PM
From: TimF	5 Recommendations Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793752

Iran doesn't have the long range missiles now, but they are working on them. If we wait until they have them before we start to work on countermeasures then they will have them for years, perhaps many years, without us having the countermeasures available. you might have mentioned that the Joint Chiefs of Staff recommended canceling the deployment... Following the lead of their boss, the president. Sometimes the brass will fall on their sword on an issue, and retire in protest, usually not.