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Politics : American Presidential Politics and foreign affairs -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: longnshort who wrote (37147)	9/18/2009 10:31:51 AM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 71588

Message 25952954

To: longnshort who wrote (37147)	9/18/2009 9:48:20 PM
From: Peter Dierks	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71588

Obama infuriates Europe as he scraps Bush's 'Son of Star Wars' missile defence shield By David Gardner Last updated at 9:52 AM on 18th September 2009 Read more: dailymail.co.uk President Obama was accused of caving in to pressure from Russia last night after abandoning plans for a missile shield in Eastern Europe. The President’s decision to scrap the £2.5billion system in Poland and the Czech Republic was immediately welcomed in Moscow. But it left countries in the former Soviet Bloc concerned that Mr Obama was less willing to stand up to Russia than his predecessors in the White House. The move also came at a sensitive time for the Poles, coinciding with the 70th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland at the beginning of the Second World War. Poland saw the shield as a political security blanket against a resurgent Russia. The Obama administration is seeking to ‘reset’ battered ties with Russia so that the two former Cold War foes can cooperate on Iran, on fighting Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan and on reducing their nuclear arsenals. But furious Republicans blasted the move, saying that Russia and Iran were stronger as a result. Former presidential candidate John McCain said the decision was ‘seriously misguided’. John Bolton, a U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations under the Bush administration, claimed: ‘Russia and Iran are the big winners. I think this is a bad day for American national security.’ Senate Republican Jon Kyl added: ‘The message the administration sends today is clear: the United States will not stand behind its friends and views “re-setting” relations with Russia as more important.’ Mr Obama insisted that a redesigned defensive system would be cheaper and more effective against the threat from Iranian warheads. Anticipating criticism from the Right, he said new Pentagon proposals focusing on short to medium-range Iranian missiles would provide increased protection more quickly than the Bush plan. ‘Our new missile defence architecture in Europe will provide stronger, smarter and swifter defences of American forces and America’s allies,’ he claimed. Mr Obama, who will meet Russian President Dmitry Medvedev during next week’s United Nations General Assembly session in New York, said Russia’s objections to the shield were ‘entirely unfounded’. Under the shield system it was planned to deploy a radar system in the Czech Republic and ten ground-based interceptors in Poland. Although it never got past the blueprint stage, it was meant to be up and running by 2012. The scheme had angered Moscow which anticipated U.S. influence extending right up to its border. The Bush missile shield would ostensibly have been a deterrent for Iranian long-range missiles, but the Russians worried that the system would be aimed at them. Under the Obama plan, Standard Missile-3 interceptor warheads would be deployed aboard U.S. Aegis ships patrolling the region, and later on the ground in Turkey or southern Europe, said defence officials. Although Washington is thought to believe that Iran’s missile programme poses less of a threat than previously thought, the U.S. will still seek to rein in Tehran’s nuclear programme. Defence Secretary Robert Gates acknowledged that the replacement system is likely to allay some of Russia’s concerns. Mr Obama, pictured, phoned Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer on Wednesday night and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk yesterday to alert them to his decision. It was not clear whether any part of the new system would still be installed in those nations. Mr Obama said the U.S. will continue to work with what he called ‘our close friends and allies’. However Poland’s foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski said the U.S. will deploy a Patriot missile battery on Polish soil. ‘The American side has assured us that the Patriots will be armed and capable of being linked to our defence system,’ Mr Sikorski said. H/T Peter Dierks dailymail.co.uk

To: longnshort who wrote (37147)	9/23/2009 9:29:06 AM
From: Peter Dierks	Respond to of 71588

The UN loves Barack Obama because he is weak It is not hard to see why a standing ovation awaits Barack Obama when he addresses the United Nations General Assembly today, writes Nile Gardiner. By Nile Gardiner Published: 8:34AM BST 23 Sep 2009 Barack Obama’s Gallup approval rating of 52 percent may well be lower at this stage of his presidency than any US leader in recent times with the exception of Bill Clinton. But he is still worshipped with messiah-like adoration at the United Nations, and is considerably more popular with many of the 192 members of the UN than he is with the American people. The latest Pew Global Attitudes Survey of international confidence in Obama’s leadership on foreign affairs shows strikingly high approval levels for the president in many parts of the world – 94 percent in Kenya, 93 percent in Germany, 88 percent in Canada and Nigeria, 77 percent in India, 76 percent in Brazil, 71 percent in Indonesia, and 62 percent in China for example. The Pew survey of 21 countries reveals an average level of 71 percent support for President Obama, compared to just 17 percent for George W. Bush in 2008. As the figures indicate, Barack Obama is highly likely to receive a warm reception when he addresses the United Nations General Assembly today, whereas his predecessor in the White House was greeted with undisguised contempt and stony silence. It is not hard to see why a standing ovation awaits the president at Turtle Bay. Obama’s popularity at the UN boils down essentially to his willingness to downplay American global power. He is the first American president who has made an art form out of apologizing for the United States, which he has done on numerous occasions on foreign soil, from Strasbourg to Cairo. The Obama mantra appears to be – ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do to atone for your country. This is a message that goes down very well in a world that is still seething with anti-Americanism. It is natural that much of the UN will embrace an American president who declines to offer strong American leadership. A president who engages dictators like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hugo Chavez will naturally gain respect from the leaders of the more than 100 members of the United Nations who are currently designated as “partly free” or “not free” by respected watchdog Freedom House. The UN is not a club of democracies - who still remain a minority within its membership – it is a vast melting pot of free societies, socialist regimes and outright tyrannies. Obama’s clear lack of interest in human rights issues is a big seller at the UN, where at least half its members have poor human rights records. The president scores highly at the UN for refusing to project American values and military might on the world stage, with rare exceptions like the war against the Taliban. His appeasement of Iran, his bullying of Israel, his surrender to Moscow, his call for a nuclear free world, his siding with Marxists in Honduras, his talk of a climate change deal, have all won him plaudits in the large number of UN member states where US foreign policy has traditionally been viewed with dislike. Simply put, Barack Obama is loved at the UN because he largely fails to advance real American leadership. This is a dangerous strategy of decline that will weaken US power and make her far more vulnerable to attack. As we saw last week with his shameful surrender to Moscow over missile defence, the president is perfectly happy to undermine America’s allies and gut its strategic defences while currying favour with enemies and strategic competitors. The missile defence debacle is rightly viewed as a betrayal by the Poles and the Czechs, and Washington has clearly give the impression that it cares little about those who have bravely stood shoulder to shoulder with their US allies in Iraq, Afghanistan and the wider war on terror. The Obama administration is now overseeing and implementing the biggest decline in American global power since Jimmy Carter. Unfortunately it may well take another generation for the United States to recover. Nile Gardiner is the Director of the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom at the Heritage Foundation. telegraph.co.uk