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WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2009

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|NEXT STORY »

US to Shelve European Missile Shield

Kremlin delighted as Obama administration ends Bush program

By Jason Farago| Posted Sep 17, 09 6:00 AM CDT|

(Newser) – The Obama administration will scrap Bush-era plans to build a missile defense shield in eastern Europe, sources tell the Wall Street Journal—a move expected to delight Russia, which has strongly opposed the program. Washington is basing its decision on a new, more modest assessment of Iran's long-range missile capabilities. Instead of focusing on long-range attacks, the White House will encourage NATO allies to develop regional defenses for short- and medium-range missiles.

With Iran refusing to budge in nuclear negotiations, the US needs Russia to support further economic sanctions when Security Council members meet next month. But the decision to shelve the program will anger Poland, the Czech Republic, and other eastern European nations who have viewed the Washington's "reset" of US-Russia relations warily. A Polish official said he wouldn't "speculate" on the fallout from the program's termination but added: "We expect the US will abide by its commitments."

[Images (3)]

[Quotes (1)]

An assistant shows the mock 'reset' button that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton handed over to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during a meeting in Geneva earlier this year. (AP Photo/Fabrice Coffrini, Pool)

A C300 anti-aircraft missile flies overhead during an air defense exercise earlier this month near the Black Sea town of Shabla, east of the Bulgarian capital Sofia. (AP Photo/Petar Petrov)

Polish President Lech Kaczynski listens to then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice speak after signing an agreement to place a US base of 10 missile interceptors in northern Poland last year. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

« Prev« Prev | Next »Next » Slideshow

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35 comments

VIEWING:

njgreen
Sep 17, 09 5:32 AM CDT

Do you think this all got started because Bush thought Poland and the Czech Republic were next door to Iran? Reply

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I_hate_to_say
Sep 17, 09 6:15 AM CDT

; -) Reply

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| 0 minutes ago

Citrixguy
Sep 17, 09 6:28 AM CDT

"Anything else Mr. Putin...shall I like your ass again?" - What a joke BHO is Reply

-7

IN RESPONSE:

yoeydude
Sep 17, 09 7:04 AM CDT

do you have any idea of the technical requirements needed to shoot a missile with another missile? almost impossible in test conditions with one target that we know the trajectory of ,now imagine a wave of decoys of conventional ICBMs , air or sea based cruise missiles ,... say we could hit what we aimed at , what do we aim at ? this has been a defense contractors wet dream for at least three decades , it has played on the fears and imagination of a majority of the citizens of this country and emptied there pockets of cold hard cash , and filled their heads with visions of a protective dome , not unlike that which Jerry Falwell spoke of god lifting away from us before 911. so , this is a return to sanity , and if we can wrangle some concessions , we come out ahead

IN RESPONSE:

shonangreg
Sep 17, 09 7:22 AM CDT

Spot on, yoeydude. This was as bad science as Bush's manned mission to the moon, the hydrogen economy, and cold fusion.

IN RESPONSE:

godawgs
Sep 17, 09 8:58 AM CDT

we have the technology now to shoot down missiles with other missiles. The AEGIS system takes care of that from ships moving in the water. Also the Patriot Missile System in the first Gulf was was missile defense, and it seemed to work fairly well. That big golf ball that they keep dragging back and forth from HI is a really powerful radar designed for stuff like this. The Navy already trains to shoot down other missiles off the coast. If we could get a shore based missile system, that would improve the AEGIS technology and the Patriot Technology, you have a viable missile to missile defense system.

IN RESPONSE:

shonangreg
Sep 17, 09 9:17 AM CDT

But Aegis and the like will not work against a volley of ICBM's. Dummy missiles with dummy warheads would be the first counter-measure. The testing of the anti-ballistic missile system has been fraught with fraud and corruption from day one.

IN RESPONSE:

godawgs
Sep 17, 09 10:29 AM CDT

@shon I think that we have the technology to face a volley of dummy missiles. I can only speak from the sea aspect of this but on a cruiser we could have 130 missiles in the air at once. Now that was one ship in a battle group of at least 4 shooters. Now that could be me trying to be a little positive with the technology that we have on hand, and i could be wrong.

IN RESPONSE:

Reader64481089
Sep 17, 09 11:26 AM CDT

Bush plan was flawed just as was Regans StarWars b/s, it was all based upon the idea they could thread a needle with a missile which they can't. The entire missile shield was a huge waste of $$ and unneeded totally, Bush over reaction just as many other of his war like moves. GW must have had to sleep with a night light when a kid and he never got over his own fears then attempted to shove that fear into every Americans life and almost succeeded for the large part

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| 0 minutes ago

SilenceDogood
Sep 17, 09 6:31 AM CDT

This is part of the Obama foreign policy of “Can’t we all just along”, wait for some chilly day in the future when Iran feels particularly threatened and hostile. They say the missiles could make to Paris. Iran may finish what Hitler planed to do. I just don’t know how they will blame on Bush, but I’m sure they have a plan. Reply

IN RESPONSE:

yoeydude
Sep 17, 09 7:17 AM CDT

my god , ... do you understand the reason a country wants the bomb ? the last thing they want to do is use it ,... what would they do after using it ? having one or making your neighbors think you have it is what its all about , Israel is the only one with a bomb in the region , that makes everyone else feel at a disadvantage , so the natural progression that started with a rock in the hand ,..... continues and I blame Reagan for more than I blame Bush , hes the one that got the ball rolling with the movement conservatives aka john birchers

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IN RESPONSE:

godawgs
Sep 17, 09 8:54 AM CDT

well actually the President of Iran says he wants the bomb so he can wipe the country of Israel off the map. Now when you tell a country that you want to wipe them out of existence, sounds to me like you want to use the bomb if you can get one.

| 0 minutes ago

yoeydude
Sep 17, 09 6:49 AM CDT

this got started because there was so much money in defense contractors ripping us off thats why Reply

| 0 minutes ago

DontLikeYou
Sep 17, 09 7:06 AM CDT

Obama = weakness. Iran is going nuclear and the democrat gets rid of missile defense. What is wrong with this man? Does he hate Americans??? Reply

IN RESPONSE:

yoeydude
Sep 17, 09 7:34 AM CDT

This comment has been removed by Newser’s community. You must be logged in to view this comment.

-1

IN RESPONSE:

yoeydude
Sep 17, 09 7:37 AM CDT

oh yea, dontknowmuch , did you read my analysis of your self hate ? check it out , I feel for you , its a bitch

IN RESPONSE:

yoeydude
Sep 17, 09 12:26 PM CDT

This comment has been removed by Newser’s community. You must be logged in to view this comment.

-2

IN RESPONSE:

yoeydude
Sep 17, 09 12:49 PM CDT

i love this community , though I have only been apart since Aug. it has been a cathartic and exhilarating experience , at first I thought Newser , readers digest of news ,,,, and well ... I still think that , but I see and read the thoughts and concerns and I feel that there is enough raw material here , of pure Human spunkiness , resoluteness , belligerence , independence and I detect intelligence even though dimly in some of our main characters , and as grumpy as I may seem ,.... well I am worse in real life , I have a low tolerance for ,... intolerance and ignorance , but nothing is set in stone ,... unless it is set in stone of course ,....and any labels I may have used ,... concisely or not , can always be revised...... but I will take this time now to say ,..... I cant stop dropping f- bombs all over this land

-1

IN RESPONSE:

OriginalMike007
Sep 17, 09 1:27 PM CDT

Yoeydude you just said you are intolerant of intolerance...Coupled with your ad hominid attacks and general vulgarity you have lost any credibility.

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Reader65069154
Sep 17, 09 7:54 AM CDT

So now we're in the business of appeasing Russia? The same country selling T-72s and SAMs to Venezuela? Reply

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IN RESPONSE:

yoeydude
Sep 17, 09 8:25 AM CDT

This comment has been removed by Newser’s community. You must be logged in to view this comment.

-2

IN RESPONSE:

Rob
Sep 17, 09 11:15 AM CDT

@yoe Where is YOUR international expertise? Or is your knowledge based in insults and vulgarities?

-1

IN RESPONSE:

OriginalMike007
Sep 17, 09 1:43 PM CDT

It's like the cold war never ended, just the threat of actually fighting each other. If anything we are remiss for not being more vigilant.

IN RESPONSE:

lowstar
Sep 20, 09 8:03 PM CDT

You don't know it but you just made the point that we should be appeasing Russia. What was the end result of the Cold War? The complete economic and military implosion of the Soviet Union. And now what's the result of that? We supported the Taliban with military arms and training in order to help them defeat Russia. That really didn't work out for us. And I can't tell you how many rounds that were fired at me from weapons that Russia had to sell on the black market so they could purchase enough power to keep the population alive. America has been pushing Russia up against a wall for so long that we can't see the forest through the trees. This is an age for alliances not divisiveness. If you want Russia to stop selling arms to other countries then you've got to look at it logically. If we can get them to stop feeling threatened then maybe we can begin setting up aid packages that eventually ends with a total draw down of forces and the proper disposal of all cold war surplus weaponry.

| 0 minutes ago

Lost_in_europe
Sep 17, 09 9:07 AM CDT

So, Comrade Obama starts to show his true colors!!! guess all Hillary's talk about "pushing the reset button" was hiding the fact that she and obama would be pushing the capitulation button...exactly as Lenin predicted when he refered to western Liberals as "useful idiots"... Reply

-3

IN RESPONSE:

yoeydude
Sep 17, 09 9:37 AM CDT

This comment has been removed by Newser’s community. You must be logged in to view this comment.

-2

IN RESPONSE:

yoeydude
Sep 17, 09 9:43 AM CDT

oh and the President of Iran is not only a tool he is a figurehead , he has no power beyond the bully pulpit , .... he gives inflammatory speeches , game out your scenario , what can Iran do to Israel ? the answer is not a damn thing , other than talk shit

-3

IN RESPONSE:

yoeydude
Sep 17, 09 5:16 PM CDT

fuking clown

-1

| 0 minutes ago

yoeydude
Sep 17, 09 9:33 AM CDT

gowdshit , you are right about aegis , amazing tech , for battle group protection at sea for limited installation protection, but it has to catch the missiles before it reenters atmosphere , patriot sys is old already ,.... you still did not get the point , even if we can hit the target , it is still like shooting a bullet with a bullet , but even if we can hit A target , what do we do if more missiles come in than we can deal with , many could be conventional or just duds ,... we would not be able to prioritize in time , even if we could deduce which launch sites were most likely to carry nuks or bio , so even if a country has only a couple of bombs , it has a ton of fakes ,.... and besides , countries want the bomb for prestige and as a counter balance , ..... we are the only country to have ever used it , space based defense is what you want , then you can see them launch and get them early , and a sea based retaliatory system so you can get close to the target Reply

-1

IN RESPONSE:

Reader65069154
Sep 17, 09 11:41 AM CDT

@yoeydude Are you capable of making an intelligent comment without dropping the f bomb or name calling? Didn't think so.

IN RESPONSE:

OriginalMike007
Sep 17, 09 1:35 PM CDT

So your argument is if you can't block all the punches your opponent might land on you why bother to learn to box at all?

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| 0 minutes ago

JoeQ
Sep 17, 09 9:39 AM CDT

All we lost was the basing for a midcourse missile defense system in eastern Europe. All that was good for anyway was knocking down a small number of missiles headed around Eurasia with long ballistic trajectories that took them into space. The navy systems we have now are much more flexible and easy to reposition on demand. We haven't really lost anything we really need, and we gained a lot of good will. What we really need is to light a fire under the butts of our aerospace engineers to build systems that are good at intercepting missiles while they are boosting or moving evasively, like the cruise missiles the russians make. We would already have systems like this if our defense industry wasn't so bad. Reply

| 0 minutes ago

yoeydude
Sep 17, 09 1:43 PM CDT

reader , does my use of invective and gutter slang offend you ? Does it prevent you from reading anything that I write ? , Does my sloppy punctuation prevent any comprehension of my central themes , or subtle nuances ? if there are any , or is it that I just dont have anything worth saying ? I like the shock value and spice of a carefully selected body part to represent what my image of a thing might be , or a persona , because we are not really hear as persons , are we ?,..... we are here representing an archetype that is in our minds , so I like the total use of our language , and the shock would be gone if you and yours wernt around to be shocked , so thank you Reply

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| 0 minutes ago

yoeydude
Sep 17, 09 5:00 PM CDT

ah , " original " mike ,.... what were ye thinking when you were the decider fer a "handle , and you chose original ? could you be so petrified of being the opposite that you just froze , and went with the obvious ? anyway your a dick , right ? ok Reply

| 0 minutes ago

yoeydude
Sep 23, 09 9:41 AM CDT

ah , original , did you say ad hominid ? whats that mean ? have a baby ? Reply

| 0 minutes ago

View all 35 comments »

Iran • Russia • missile shield • Poland • missile • missile defense system • Obama administration

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US to Shelve European Missile Shield