The NY Slimes reports that the President sent a secret letter to Vladdy Putin with a take it or leave it proposal that the US would not deploy missile defense for Eastern Europe if the Ruskies would stop Iran from developing long range weapons . (you know.. that Star Wars stuff that
doesn't work that
Ronnie Ray gun championed that so worried Gorbachev that he dismantled the Soviet Union... and still is a huge concern to the Ruskies today)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/03/wa...pagewanted=all
“It's almost saying to them, put up or shut up,” said a senior administration official. “It's not that the Russians get to say, 'We'll try and therefore you have to suspend.' It says the threat has to go away.”
Moscow has not responded, but a Russian official said Monday that Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov would have something to say on missile defense to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton when they meet Friday in Geneva. Mr. Obama and Mr. Medvedev will then meet for the first time on April 2 in London, officials said Monday.
Interesting that this got leaked. Either it is a trial ballon by the President ,or someone on the inside is very afraid of the implication. I'll assume the later .
Although Obama has been cool on the idea of missile defense ,this seems to indicate that he thinks enough of the system to use it as a bargaining chip.
The President's assumption that Iran is controlled by Moscow is interesting in itself and leaves all types of questions about Russia's role in Iranian nuke development ; and Iranian terrorism against the US in the region .Are the Iranians following Moscow's marching orders ? What makes the President think that he can change Iran's military expansion based on giving take it or leave it proposals to the Ruskies ?
Or is Russia Iran's puppet much like Syria ? Can they be flipped by eliminating defensive missile deployment in Eastern Europe ?
I don't get it .
I also don't get how this can be verified . Yes it would be obvious that the US was not deploying missiles . How do we verify that the Ruskies have stopped giving the Iranians assistance ? It's not like the Iranians have been open in their nuclear development . Technology transfers have happened from Pakistan ,N Korea , Russia to name a few. Our geniouses who wrote the NIE early last year assumed that Iran had completely suspended their program. Now we here they are spinning enough certerfuges to give them enough fissable material shortly.
So what the President proposes then is a verifiable non-deployment against the full faith and trust the Ruskies would live up to their end of the bargain .
But what's worse is that it stabs our allies in Europe in the back. We have the means to intercept missiles from the rogue State of Iran before their mere existence threatens the security of the continent .The deployment of defensive missile shield could only be a threat to Moscow if they lose leverage against the former Eastern bloc nations from a Russian attack. That is what I think Russia really objects to ;our extending deterence to nations previously under their sphere . This move by Obama is a betrayal of new allies on the order of Chamberlain's appeasment of Hitler .