Obama makes sensible offer to Russians
“President Obama has sent a letter to his Russian counterpart that raises the prospect of the United States halting development of its missile defense program in Eastern Europe if Russia helps resolve the threat posed by Iran’s nuclear program, senior administration officials said last night.
Obama’s letter, delivered to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in mid-February, “covered a number of topics” of mutual interest to the two countries, “including the issue of missile defense and how it relates to the Iranian threat,” a senior administration official said. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the matter.
This official and others said the letter repeated an assertion Obama administration officials have voiced in recent weeks: The missile defense system would not be necessary if the threat posed by Iran’s long-range missiles and its nuclear program was eliminated.”
That’s a smart move. It might not work, but it’s certainly worth the chance.
It has always been a mystery to me why the American taxpayer should be asked to spend tens of billions of dollars building a missile defense system for Europe that the Europeans largely do not want and will not help finance. Why is that our obligation? It is also less than certain that the system would even work.
So if the Obama administration can dump such a system, save the money, force the Europeans to start spending on their own defense and in the process gain crucial Russian support in pressuring Iran, that’s a good deal all around. The alternative — deteriorating relations with Russia, Iran continuing toward a nuclear capability and Europe sitting fat, smug and sassy while we protect it — would be far worse.
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284 comments Add your comment
CommunistAJC
March 3rd, 2009
9:19 am
We are in serious trouble.
Bosch
March 3rd, 2009
9:21 am
Jay,
I totally agree. I’ve never understood why we have to foot the bill for that system either.
However, I don’t trust the Russians at all – if anyone would push the button, it would definitely be them. If we are going on history, the Russians have a lot more evidence of total barbarianism, and I think it would be just like them to agree to this and go behind our backs in the meantime.
I Report/ You Whine
March 3rd, 2009
9:21 am
Hehehehehehe-
Russian President Dmitri Medvedev on Tuesday showed willingness to discuss the US-planned missile defence system opposed by Moscow, but without ‘haggling’ linking it to Iran.
president One Term spanked!
TnGelding
March 3rd, 2009
9:26 am
And we can’t afford it.
Brad Steal
March 3rd, 2009
9:27 am
This does not only apply to Europe. Why are we footing the bill to be the defacto police and/or military for dozens of countries and regions around the world? Why do we keep active military bases in places where there strategic use has long ago ceased?
My suspicion is that the military loves its bases and wants to keep them.
B. Steal
Mrs. Godzilla
March 3rd, 2009
9:34 am
Will Rush allow negotiation with Russia over missle defense?
Let’s see…..
BDAtlanta
March 3rd, 2009
9:34 am
OMG, we have a President that is practicing diplomacy?
wow! That is such a cool idea – one that has worked for centuries.
mm
March 3rd, 2009
9:36 am
Commie,
No surprise. You don’t want to spend a dime on Americans, but you support p*ssing away billions in another country. Typical Republican.
Flex
March 3rd, 2009
9:38 am
This is the same missle system that brought down Soviet Union. There are more countries out there that are a threat to the USA than just Iran. How about the Russians or Pakistan or North Korea? And where to you exactly do you want to shoot down enemy missles over New Jersey. The threats of today may not be the threats of tomorrow. We need to protect our country!
Oh by the way Jay Bookman is an idiot.
mike
March 3rd, 2009
9:39 am
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/?hpid=topnews
Looks like Jay and the rest of the liberal media got the memo and of course, folks like Mrs. Godzilla are swallowing it hook, line, and sinker.
You Lie / You Welch
March 3rd, 2009
9:42 am
Commie = I Report / You Whine = “Hussein” references or “One Term” references. He is also Andy – a liar and apparantly a welcher.
I case everyone hasn’t heard. He claims to have gone to Duke where he learned to cut-n-paste and parrot fat people.
Mrs. Godzilla
March 3rd, 2009
9:44 am
Oh and I’ll need some help hugging Rush….he has expanded some since the picture on his website was taken.
Kay
March 3rd, 2009
9:44 am
Mike,
Looks like Jay and the of the liberal media got a brain (Mrs. Godzilla included). The rest of you do whatever Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity tell you to do (Simon Says).
RealityKing
March 3rd, 2009
9:44 am
Iran will get their nuclear missiles.
Europe will not get a missile shield.
And America’s best interests will not be served.
Progressive change you can believe in…
B. Steal
March 3rd, 2009
9:45 am
Flex,
you forgot to mention the WMD’s in Iraq.
RealityKing
March 3rd, 2009
9:46 am
Can you hear that(handtoear)!? Putin is laughing…
Mrs. Godzilla
March 3rd, 2009
9:46 am
Limbaugh/Palin 2012
oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please
mike
March 3rd, 2009
9:50 am
Kay -
Actually, I think Limbaugh is an partisan hack, but that won’t stop you and unthinking partisans from your silly stereotypes.
“National Democratic strategists believe that they have only begun to mine the Limbaugh vein, maintaining that while he is a potent force — and much beloved by the GOP’s conservative base — he is widely disliked by independent and swing voters. In a recent poll by Democratic survey firm Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, 44 percent of Republicans felt warmly toward Limbaugh while 32 percent expressed “cold” feelings. Compare that to the broader swath of all voters where 58 percent felt coldly toward Limbaugh and 21 percent felt warmly.
Fred Davis, who led Sen. John McCain’s (Ariz.) ad team in 2008, insisted that the attempt to heighten Limbaugh’s profile and tie him around the ankles of other Republicans is “clearly a poll-based effort, and I think it has a couple days of legs.”
Davis may be right but Democrats are convinced that the best way to keep Republicans in a permanent minority status is to keep Limbaugh moving up the Fix’s Line of the ten most influential GOPers in the country. (Self promotion alert!)”"
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/?hpid=topnews
If you can read, you will see that Limbaugh is not that much more popular among Republicans than he is among the total American population, but that is a big if. Most likely you will be as incapable of thinking for yourself as are Rush’s supporters.
Keep on bleating.
DB, Gwinnettian
March 3rd, 2009
9:50 am
“oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please”
No flirting!
Just popping in to tell Paul, if he’s lurking, I replied to him in the previous thread. Have fun, kids.
RealityKing
March 3rd, 2009
9:50 am
And why on earth would Obama need to send love letters to Russia? I mean.., didn’t he campaign on sitting down with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad??
G
March 3rd, 2009
9:51 am
It reminds me of Kennedy’s approach to the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Diplomacy, negotiation, and an honest approach to addressing mutual concerns can, in the end, take us further than ham-fisted rhetoric.
AH
March 3rd, 2009
9:52 am
Anybody who thinks relying on the Russians for our defense is a good idea is either naive or just plain dumb.
Mrs. Godzilla
March 3rd, 2009
9:56 am
Anybody who thinks Obama’s plan is to rely on the Russians for our defense…..well, they need a hug.
I Report/ You Whine
March 3rd, 2009
10:07 am
Get me a ticket for an airplane, ain’t time to take a fast train, lonely days are gone, I’m a comin home, my baby she wrote me a letter-
Asked about a report in the New York Times that U.S. President Barack Obama had written to him offering to back off deploying a new missile system in Eastern Europe in return for help with the Iranians, Medvedev said signals from Washington were positive but the two issues were separate.
“If we are talking about any “swaps” (Iran for missile defence), this is not how the question is being put. This would not be productive,” Medvedev told a news conference in Madrid, where he was on a state visit.
ew
Observer
March 3rd, 2009
10:10 am
Diplomacy is a wonderful concept and works in many political arenas but it doesn’t apply to every situation. If Obama agrees to withdraw the missile defense system in exchange for Russia’s help with Iran, we lose. That’s because Iran will probably TELL the Russians they will cease their nuclear program while continuing in an underground fashion (history supports this presumption). Meanwhile, we will actually dismantle our missile defense program making us more vulnerable to future attack. Once Obama (or his successor) discovers he’s been played by the Russians, it will be too late.
But hey, it will only have cost the security of the country. No big deal.
NATIONAL SECURITY IS NOT A BARGAINING CHIP! The fact that our current president doesn’t realize this is frightening.
Paul
March 3rd, 2009
10:10 am
Brad Steal
[[My suspicion is that the military loves its bases and wants to keep them]]
I think history shows the military adapts to whatever the civilian leadership imposes. My guess is the politicians like it – or don’t want to weather the attacks over “OMG WE’RE AT WAR AND YOU WANT TO CUT DEFENSE!!!”
Mrs. Gidzilla
[[Limbaugh/Palin 2012]]
Please don’t do that while I’m eating…
DB, Gwinnettian
And I replied to you in the previous thread!
Fun? They’ve been given a great topic and they reverted to Rush…
Mrs. Godzilla
March 3rd, 2009
10:17 am
Paul
Sorry.
Observer
March 3rd, 2009
10:17 am
Obama may be clueless in matters of national security but it appears that he made it through the day yesterday without spending billions of dollars we don’t have. Maybe he’s learning fiscal constraint.
Counting down the days to the mid-term elections.
Paul
March 3rd, 2009
10:21 am
Good topic. Several interlinking issues. First, Russia is the prime agent in the developing Iranian nuclear program. They flat do not see Iran as a threat – to them. Threat to anyone else? That’s their problem (that’s the reality of internation relations). Russia is making – let’s see, from design, construction, tech reps, what’re we up to, two? three? anti-air missile systems? parts, more reps… well if not hundreds and hundreds of millions, likely over a billion. And with their collapsed revenue stream from oil and natural gas, they’ve defaulted to military-type sales to bolster their economic situation.
The missile systems, I think, were not just a defense from rogue state missile launches. They are a way for former Soviet republics and eastern European nations to solidify their separation from Russia. Which Russia doesn’t like. There’s a lot of symbolism there and that’s why we’re willing to pay to make it happen.
And the above is why, as Report/Whine pointed out, the Russians may not find it in their interest to accept the Obama Administration’s linkage. Currency and established influence in the Persian Gulf to counter American influence, or drop a missile program when other avenues exist to influence neighboring countries?
But I do think it was a good move on Pres Obama’s part. Gotta ask the questions. The Russian response, though, (no linkage) may bring a dose of realpolitik. Rather like how the NATO countries have pledged tens of thousands more troops for the NATO mission in Afghanistan. Wait, they haven’t?
So the other interesting question is, where does the Administration go from there?
Bosch
March 3rd, 2009
10:24 am
Mrs. G.,
I agree with the Limbaugh/Palin 2012 ticket. I’d go to rallies and everything. What a ……. joy that would be!
Paul,
“Don’t do that while I’m eating.” Funny. Hey, did you see Luckovich’s cartoon today? It’s pretty funny. I like “Guy with Sign” – my kind of humor.
rushia forever
March 3rd, 2009
10:28 am
russia shumsha.
Rush is the real super power.
Bosch
March 3rd, 2009
10:31 am
Paul,
Good points. We’ve had this discussion before, but I don’t sit around thinking about getting nuked all the time, because I think it’s highly unlikely, but if it did happen, it would have Russia’s name on it as it dropped.
Obama has kind of put the ball in their court – but as my German friends have noted (Germans – not real big fans of Russians to say the least – I won’t repeat what they say in case there are children present) they are the biggest threat to us all.
You don’t frak around with Russians – and most of the time, they frak you when you’re not looking just for pure fun – hell, it’s cold there, they have to have something to entertain themselves while they are guzzling all that potato whisky.
Mrs. Godzilla
March 3rd, 2009
10:40 am
Bosch
I’d bake cookies for rallies…..
Bosch
March 3rd, 2009
10:41 am
Jay,
Can I send you or the AJC the bill from my therapist? I think I’ll need at least two to three sessions to get that mental image of Rush dancing around in the Egyptian garb from Joseph and TATD out of my head, not to mention the nightmares.
Taxpayer
March 3rd, 2009
10:44 am
Don’t make fun of Wodka. Commie might get upset and sic Boris and Natasha on you.
Redneck Convert
March 3rd, 2009
10:44 am
Well, long as I got my two machine guns and rocket launcher–for hunting and self-defense–I ain’t going to worry about Russia or Iran neither. I just wish they would pass a carry law for the machine guns. You can bet nobody would come close to the line at Ryans and try and get in front of the missus if I was there with a machine gun barrel sticking out of my coveralls.
I’m still stocking up on food for when the big war comes and the Terrists come after me. I won’t be going down easy. This Obama may let a war start but rednecks like me will finish it. Anyhow, it’s stupid to count on a bunch of Commies to keep their word. Have a good day everybody.
getalife
March 3rd, 2009
10:50 am
Nice try but doubt China and Russia will throw away their Iran/Iraq oil card.
Wyld Byll Hyltnyr
March 3rd, 2009
10:50 am
G 9:51 am
The ignorance (and pure gall) of liberal revisionism never ceases to amaze me. There was no dimplomacy in the Cuban Missile Crisis; it was pure draw down. There was no “ask nicely”, no “negotiation”; it was pure remove the missiles or it is war – that was the message.
Perhaps, since most liberals received several swirlies during the high school years, this story will help you all to understand.
You have an eleven inch neck and you have to carry your lunch money for the week to school on each Monday morning. When you buy lunch, a mid-level bully (Iran) notices that you pay with a $20 each week. Next Monday morning he intercepts you on the way to school and makes you fork over the $20, so you seek help from the bully (Russia) at the top of the bullying period and ask him to protect you from the mid-level bully. The top-tier Bully senses your weakness, so he is not going to protect you, rather he senses your weakness and decides to take advantage of you.
Another boneheaded and naive move by Obama, but it probably won’t work out much worse than his verbal trashing of the economy and small businessman has worked on the stock market.
G-d help us all; maybe we can surve 47 more months of this dufus.
Buzzfan
March 3rd, 2009
10:53 am
Funny that Russia’s the topic, as for awhile now I’ve been having flashbacks to the reallocation of the square meters in the Moscow home of the Gromekos by the Bolshevik “residency committee” in “Doctor Zhivago”.
Wonder what brought that on?
Hillbilly Deluxe
March 3rd, 2009
10:53 am
I do not trust any Russian. As soon as a Russian worms his way in, all hell breaks loose. Karl Marx
Curious Observer
March 3rd, 2009
11:01 am
“There was no dimplomacy in the Cuban Missile Crisis; it was pure draw down. There was no “ask nicely”, no “negotiation”; it was pure remove the missiles or it is war – that was the message.”
Wrong, Wyld Byll. The negotiations occurred behind the scenes. JFK agreed to remove missiles in Turkey if Russia would remove the missiles in Cuba. And that’s what happened.
BDAtlanta
March 3rd, 2009
11:07 am
It’s all a game that sometimes ends up in war. You play the game by feeling each other out. That’s called Diplomacy and people have been doing it since the first two cavemen both came across a dead wooly mammoth at the same time.
If the response from the Russkies had been different, all of you neocons/Limbaugh-worshippers would be singing a different tune. It’s one hand in a game.
Imagine how many of those hands get played out weekly that we never hear about…
Wyld Byll Hyltnyr
March 3rd, 2009
11:09 am
Curious Observer 11:01 am
You need to speak with those who were around the table and read a reliable (and not revisionist history.)There was no quid pro quo with respct to Turkish and Cuban missiles, rather, after a strong asnd direct message, Turkish missiles were a way for Russia to save face.
Taxpayer
March 3rd, 2009
11:12 am
BD, A dead woolly mammoth! What did they do when they came across a live one? Throw one another to the wolves like the Republicans. Wait for the bigger creature to kill off one and then feast on the left-overs like the Republicans. What? WHAT?
Dusty
March 3rd, 2009
11:12 am
Well, the Democrats are making great choices for Republicans next election. I think I will make one too. Here’s to a MICHELE OBAMA and HILARY CLINTON Democratic ticket (if they have paid their taxes which is doubtful). Think of the beauty of that pair with the brainy, sexy expresidents behind them, way behind.
Yep..that’s it… MICHELE O HIL Dem ticket… or if you prefer HIL MICHELE O Dem ticket. Fashion designers would be commiting suicide without help but not to worry. Jane Fonda would sponsor them right away and Cindy Sheehan would help too. It’s a done deal. MICHELE O HIL for the DEMOCRATS. First female presidents!!!! DEMOCRATS to break the GENDER WALL!!!! MICHELE O HIL !!!!!!
Observer
March 3rd, 2009
11:13 am
It seems our president, Mr. Diplomacy, has managed to snub our biggest political ally. Keep up the good work Mr. President. Keep up the good work.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1158395/Downing-St-left-embarrassed-President-Obama-scales-meeting-Brown.html
BDAtlanta
March 3rd, 2009
11:13 am
So, I guess Wild Bill was there….and, dag-nab-it, his version of history is the correct one.
End of conversation.
Paul
March 3rd, 2009
11:17 am
Bosch
That Lucko was clever.
I’m not so sure. Russians showed restraint all thru the Cold War – then again, our policy then was, you launch we launch everything (preemption?). You hit us with anything, we launch all at you. They had the same doctine regarding us. And we believed each other.
Busy day today, but I’m not sure other nations/leaders/groups have that restraint. Or the fear we’d massively retaliate. So the calculation – especially ten, twenty years down the road, would be ‘do we have deniability through a third party?”
In many ways the situation not too far into the future could be constructed as more risky than the 50s.
But that still doesn’t mean you don’t frak with the Russians. Or think they see things the way we do.
BDAtlanta
March 3rd, 2009
11:19 am
Taxpayer,
Depends on their speed. If they were fast, yeah, I’d wait behind the rocks and let the animals duke it out. I think that’s called survival… (but I’m sure some on here would be manly and rush out there with a sharpened pole – anything else would be sissy man liberal)
If they were slow, you could team up on them one by one….kinda like what goes on here by us Libs every day.
Sam
March 3rd, 2009
11:20 am
While the Dow plummets towards 5000, Quick!, the White House has released next week’s social calendar:
Mon night: Bolshevik night – Barry and Michelle hosting Putin as he puts some judo moves on Barry over missile defense
Tues night: Democratic Plastic Surgery Support Group, moderated by Barry and Michelle. Starring, “Stretch” Pelosi, “Plugs” Biden, and Diane “Franken” Feinstein
Wed night: Back by popular demand! Festival Night part deux – Barney Frank once again kneeling and bobbing for…….you guessed it, apples
Fri night: NBA double header of course for Barry
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