Obama scraps the dangerous Bush-Cheney plans to build a missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic. As much as I criticize Putin and his regime (regardless of what political title he holds, he still hold the power), to antagonize Russia when we are in a financial crisis, militarily stretched in several wars, and have world opinion against us (thanks to Bush-Cheney) was an insane to begin with. Moreover, we need to focus on protecting ourselves from actual threats, not the ones that Dick Cheney hallucinated on behalf of the military industrial complex.
But some clearly stood to make a good chunk of change from such an endeavor. My guess is that we will see a good many corporate (defense contractors) sponsored propaganda pieces against Obama on this in the next 72 hours.
Talking to the Wall Street Murdoch, non-other than Eric Edelman gives his opinion:
"It is not an assessment that is shared universally. Eric Edelman, who oversaw missile-defense issues at the Pentagon as undersecretary of defense for policy in the Bush administration, said intelligence reports he reviewed were more troubling.
"Maybe something really dramatic changed between Jan. 16 and now in terms of what the Iranians are doing with their missile system, but I don't think so," Mr. Edelman said, referring to his last day in office."
If the name sounds familiar, it is because Edelman is implicated as a conspirator in an espionage scandal by whistle-blower Sibel Edmonds. So whatever his opinion on anything else, he first has to provide answers on these allegations.
There has been some talk that Poland got the missile defense system as a direct result of agreeing to house a black site to which the US kidnapped terrorism suspects to and at which those suspects were tortured. It will be interesting to see how Poland reacts to this news.
The right-wing birthers, racists, and general glue-sniffers have already jumped on this as a rebuff of our European allies in favor of Iran and Russia (given that Obama is a big Socialist). It would be difficult to explain dangerous policies of the Bush-Cheney cabal to a cockroach, but even that would be easier than trying to explain it to people sniffing glue on a daily basis. Here are some examples:
"But look at it this way: America’s allies may feel whacked, but Russia and Iran are doubtless happy at the outcome."
Moonbattery: You might recall that this guy is a racist, so consider his comments against his latest brain dump:
"In what could probably be considered an unsurprising turn of events, Chairman Obama's White House has decided to officially shelve the Bush administration's plans for building a missile defense system based in Poland and the Czech Republic. The Czech Interim Prime Minister learned this from a midnight call"
Chairman Obama? Very cute. Ignorant, but cute.
"Coddle Your Enemies; Betray Your Friends"
This is incredibly harsh, akin to calling Obama a traitor by the suggestion that he is giving comfort to our enemies.
As far as I know, Russia is not an enemy of the US. Although I have long argued that the US take a much stronger position on the human rights abuses and murders in Russia of journalists and Putin critics, I have not seen anything that would suggest that Russia and the US have entered into the Cold War again. There is a tense relationship, yes. There are serious conflicts over foreign policy issues. But "enemies" is a strong word. Are the neo-cons and glue-sniffers now hoping we bomb, bomb, bomb Russia? Moreover, China and Russia are allies and China holds our debt and produces most of our goods, thanks to the corporate greed that the right-wing has allowed to fester under the banner of de-regulation.
This bunch supported a full-out, illegal war against Iraq based on cooked intel and still refuses to demand that those responsible be held to account. As a result of our war in Iraq, Iran has grown defiant and strong. Again, no demands for accountability from this bunch. Instead, they continue to call for more war, more military spending, and scream in horror at the idea that public funds might be instead used to address issues of domestic priority. In other words, no health care for Americans, but much more money to the military industrial complex.