ÿþ<html> <head> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1"> <title>OnlineColumnist®.com: Putin Punishes Georgia</title> <meta name="generator" content="Adobe GoLive 4"> <style type="text/css"> .style2 { font-size: large; font-weight: bold; font-family: Arial; } .style3 { height: 69px; } .MsoNormal {} .style4 { font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; margin-bottom: .0001pt; } .style5 { font-size: x-large; font-weight: bold; } </style> </head> <body bgcolor="white" vlink="black"> <center> <table cool width="624" height="2719" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" gridx="16" showgridx gridy="16" showgridy> <tr height="79"> <td width="133" height="118" rowspan="2" valign="top" align="left" xpos="0"><a href="aboutdiscobolos.html"><img height="110" width="62" src="images/discobolos.logo.transp.gif" border="0"></a></td> <td width="7" height="118" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="482" height="79" colspan="2" valign="top" align="left" xpos="140"><img height="75" width="450" src="images/banner.GIF"></td> <td width="1" height="118" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="1" height="79"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="79"></td> </tr> <tr height="39"> <td width="182" height="39"></td> <td width="300" height="39" valign="top" align="left" xpos="322"><a href="aboutdiscobolos.html"><img height="14" width="267" src="images/divisionofNEW.GIF" border="0"></a></td> <td width="1" height="39"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="39"></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="624" colspan="6" valign="top" align="left" xpos="0" class="style3"> <table border="0" width="100%" bgcolor="black" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td> <table border="0" width="100%" bgcolor="#99ffcc" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="4"> <tr> <td align="center"> <div align="left"> <a href="index.html"><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong> HOME</strong></font></a><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong> &#8226; <a href="articlesindex.html">ARTICLES</a> &#8226; <a href="books.html">BOOKS</a> &#8226; <a href="teflon.html"> THE </a><a href="teflon.html">TEFLON</a><a href="teflon.html"> REPORT</a> &#8226; <a href="mailto:letters@onlinecolumnist.com"> REACTIONS</a> &#8226; <a href="aboutdiscobolos.html">ABOUT DISCOBOLOS</a></strong></font></div> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr height="2"> <td width="133" height="2">&nbsp;</td> <td width="489" height="2576" colspan="3" rowspan="2" align="left" xpos="133" content valign="top" csheight="2573"> <p class="style2">Missile Defense Fiasco</p> <p><b><font face="Arial,Geneva,Helvetica">by John M. Curtis</font></b><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><b><a href="books.html"><br> </a></b></font><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><b> (310) 204-8700</b></font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><i>Copyright November 12, 2008<br>All Rights Reserved. </i></font>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="style5">A</span>mong the most ominous decisions President-elect Barack Obama faces after sworn in Jan. 20, 2009 is whether or not to go ahead with President George W. Bush s missile defense program.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Bush s decision to cut contracts with Boeing Missile Defense Systems, Poland and the Czech Republic sent U.S.-Russian relations plummeting like the U.S. stock market.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Bush insists that growing long-range missile threats from rogue regimes like Iran and North Korea threaten Europe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Despite no European leader agreeing with Bush s assessment, the administration was willing to trash relations with the Russian Federation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin vehemently oppose Bush s plan, promising to deploy more ballistic missiles and to bomb such installations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Medvedev and Putin believe Bush s plan threatens Russian national security.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>After showing a lukewarm response to missile defense, Obama now faces pressure from the military industrial establishment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>U.S. Gen. Henry A. Obering III, director of the United States Air Force Missile Defense Agency, warned that national security would be  severely hurt if the new president didn t go ahead with missile defense plans in Eastern Europe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Obering may know something about missile defense but he knows little about  linkage. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Bush s unilateral decision has pushed the U.S. and Russia to the closest military confrontation since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have accused Russia of escalating the Cold War, when, in fact, the U.S. marched ahead with missile defense plans on Russia s border.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Obering insists that missile defense demonstrates U.S. leadership in NATO.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Without buying into the administration s logic, Obama must weigh the benefits of missile defense against the deteriorated state of Russian-U.S. relations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Just like the situation in Iraq, Obama must carefully assess the real risks to Europe of incoming missiles from Iran, North Korea or some other rogue regime.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Bush felt compelled to invade Iraq because he assessed Saddam Hussein s weapons of mass destruction as a  gathering threat to U.S. national security.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>While the blustery Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has issued veiled threats against Israel, he s never uttered one threat against Europe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>North Korea has already engaged in some disarmament, including dismantling its nuclear reactor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Press reports indicate that North Korea s unstable dictator Kim Jong Il may be gravely ill, no longer posing the kind of national security threat once imagined.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>During the campaign, Obama expressed reservations about effectiveness of a missile defense shield, given today s technology.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Missile defense systems have come-and-gone over the last 25 years since the late President Ronald Reagan announced the  Star Wars Strategic Defense Initiative March 23, 1983.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Obering, who retires from his post next week, tried to reassure skeptics that the bugs have been worked out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Whether or not the system works doesn t address the advisability of installing interceptor missiles in Poland and sophisticated radar in the Czech Republic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>With Russia s objections, Obama must weigh carefully the risks of incoming missiles against a possible military confrontation with Russia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>When Georgia attacked the Russian enclave of South Ossetia Aug. 11, Georgia s 40-year-old U.S.-backed President Mikhail Saakashvili asked for U.S. and NATO troops.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>During the campaign, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and his running mate Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin supported U.S. military intervention.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>That put the U.S. into the most dangerous possible confrontation with Russia since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>They urged NATO to adopt Georgia and the Ukraine, fearing Russian adventurism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Given the instability in Georgia and Bush s plans to install missile defense in Poland and the Czech Republic, Barack faces daunting challenges.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Russia s foreign ministry warned Aug.. 20 of possible military action should the U.S. move ahead with missile defense.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> In this case Russia will be forced to react, and not only through diplomatic channels, said the foreign ministry communiqué.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> Missile defense, of course, is aimed at no one, said Condi.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> It is in our defense that we do this, ignoring national security risks by ratcheting up Cold War tensions.</p> <p class="style4" style="tab-stops: center 3.0in right 6.0in"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>When Barack takes office Jan. 20, 2009, he ll have to take a hard look at the consequences of implementing missile defense in Eastern Europe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Bush and Rice warned of impending threats from Iranian missiles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>No other NATO president or foreign minister expressed the same fears.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> Antagonizing Russia does little to help U.S. national security.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Promoting a healthy bilateral relationship is the best way to restrain a growing Iranian nuclear threat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Bush s preemptive war in Iraq and gunboat diplomacy has left the U.S. more vulnerable to rogue regimes and terrorist networks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Unilateral military action can only harm already strained relations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Obama must reassess the real risks and consider the linkage between U.S. actions and Russia s moves in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and around the globe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Creating friends in Poland and the Czech Republic at the expense of Russia makes no sense.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <bAbout the Author</u><b>John M. Curtis</b> writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.&nbsp; He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of <i><a href="books.html">Dodging The Bullet</a> </i>and <i><a href="books.html"> Operation Charisma</a></i>.</p> </td> <td width="1" height="2576" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="1" height="2"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="2"></td> </tr> <tr height="2574"> <td width="133" height="2574" valign="top" align="left" xpos="0"><img height="172" width="111" src="images/johninframe3.jpg"></td> <td width="1" height="2574"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="2574"></td> </tr> <tr height="1" cntrlrow> <td width="133" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="133" height="1"></td> <td width="7" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="7" height="1"></td> <td width="182" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="182" height="1"></td> <td width="300" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="300" height="1"></td> <td width="1" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="1"></td> <td width="1" height="1"></td> </tr> </table> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2" width="597"> <tr> <td><font size="1" face="Arial,Geneva,Helvetica"> <hr noshade size="1"> </font><a href="index.html"><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong> Home</strong></font></a><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong> || <a href="articlesindex.html">Articles</a> || <a href="books.html">Books</a> || <a href="teflon.html">The Teflon Report</a> || <a href="mailto:letters@onlinecolumnist.com"> Reactions</a> || <a href="aboutdiscobolos.html">About Discobolos</a></strong></font> <div align="left"> <p><font size="1" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular">This site designed, developed and hosted by the experts at</font><font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"> <a href="http://www.cmeonline.net" target="_blank"><img height="30" width="138" src="images/cmelogoANIM.gif" border="0" align="absmiddle"></a></font></p> </div> <p><font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular">©1999-2005 <a href="aboutdiscobolos.html"> Discobolos Consulting Services, Inc.</a><br> (310) 204-8300<br> All Rights Reserved. </font></td> </tr> </table> </center> </body> </html>