UPDATE: Obama: Letter to Moscow Addressed Missile Shield, Did Not Offer Trade-Off
President Obama on Tuesday denied floating any "quid pro quo" with Russia over junking a missile defense shield Moscow opposes in exchange for Russia's help in stopping Iran from building nuclear weapons.
The president said that his recent letter to Moscow expressed his stance that reducing the threat of a nuclear Iran in turn reduces the need for a missile defense shield in Eastern Europe.
Senior U.S. administration officials previously suggested there was a trade-off in the letter, which they said hinted that plans for the defense shield could be unnecessary if Russian President Dmitry Medvedev helped in blocking Iran's progress toward building long-range missiles.
But Obama walked that claim back in a session with reporters following his meeting Tuesday with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
"It was simply a statement of fact that I've made previously," he said, stressing that the defense shield would be aimed at Iran, not Russia.
"And what I said in the letter was obviously, to the extent that we are lessening Iran's commitment to nuclear weapons, then that reduces the pressure for, or the need for a missile defense system," he said.
Obama said he has made clear that the U.S. needs to "reset or reboot" its relationship with Russia.
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Once again, Barack Obama's foreign policy naiveté rears its ugly head.
From the New York Times:
President Obama sent a secret letter to Russia’s president last month suggesting that he would back off deploying a new missile defense system in Eastern Europe if Moscow would help stop Iran from developing long-range weapons, American officials said Monday.
The letter to President Dmitri A. Medvedev was hand-delivered in Moscow by top administration officials three weeks ago. It said the United States would not need to proceed with the interceptor system, which has been vehemently opposed by Russia since it was proposed by the Bush administration, if Iran halted any efforts to build nuclear warheads and ballistic missiles.
The officials who described the contents of the message requested anonymity because it has not been made public. While they said it did not offer a direct quid pro quo, the letter was intended to give Moscow an incentive to join the United States in a common front against Iran. Russia’s military, diplomatic and commercial ties to Tehran give it some influence there, but it has often resisted Washington’s hard line against Iran.
“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.”
This sounds great, just great.
Sure, why not trust Russia and Iran? Russia will gladly unite with us against Iran. Of course!
What is Obama thinking?
Good grief.
...Mr. Obama’s letter, sent in response to one he received from Mr. Medvedev shortly after Mr. Obama’s inauguration, is part of an effort to “press the reset button” on Russian-American relations, as Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. put it last month. Among other things, the letter discussed talks to extend a strategic arms treaty expiring this year and cooperation in opening supply routes to Afghanistan.
The plan to build a high-tech radar facility in the Czech Republic and deploy 10 interceptor missiles in Poland — a part of the world that Russia once considered its sphere of influence — was a top priority for President George W. Bush to deter Iran in case it developed a nuclear warhead to fit atop its long-range missiles. Mr. Bush never accepted a Moscow proposal to install part of the missile defense system on its territory and jointly operate it so it could not be used against Russia.
Now the Obama administration appears to be reconsidering that idea, although it is not clear if it would want to put part of the system on Russian soil where it could be flipped on or off by Russians. Mr. Obama has been lukewarm on missile defense, saying he supports it only if it can be proved technically effective and affordable.
It's bad enough that Obama has done such damage to the economy already.
Now, he's going to completely screw up on foreign policy and play right into the hands of Russia and Iran.
Wonderful. This change stuff is getting really scary.
3 comments:
Putin has to be laughing so hard that he peed himself. Obama appears to have the mentality of a high school student. This is going to be easy. And what kind of message did this silly little move send to terrorists all over the world? Good frickin' grief. Maybe is doesn't matter since Obama is going to completely ruin our economy in the next three to six months.
Obama wants to stop Russia selling weapons to Iran and building bilateral relations with Iran in general. It times when petrochemical prices are low, and Iran's revenue is therefore dwindling, Russia’s removal will be a painful blow to Iran. The country will suddenly become further isolated and under far greater pressure for forthcoming talks with the US.
Furthermore, soon will come the day when the US might have to start bombing Iran to stop the development of its nuclear program, and I’d sure as heck prefer if the flyboys weren’t going in against sophisticated SAM batteries, one of the reasons its vital to have Russia onside.
In return, Russia would like to not have an anti-ballistic missile shield in its backyard, potentially upsetting the finely poised balance of strategic forces, and would probably be willing to give up the sizeable revenue it gets from Iran in order to achieve this.
It seems like a win-win scenario for the US to not spend billions (trillions?) of dollars on a system that probably won't work anyway, while at the same time further pressuring Iran.
Ultimately, Iran is the major foreign policy challenge for this administration, and completely isolating it by taking Russia out of the equation is a smart move in order to make sure Iran is negotiating from a position of weakness.
Sure, Putin could say "yes" and then do nothing, but then Obama can just as easily continue with the missile shield.
I'm not quite sure I understood what you were getting at, but I hope I have outlined some points that could lead to constructive discussion and debate. It’s always interesting to read contrasting views.
To bad the Russians laughed off Obama's proposal, huh.
This is the real world not some classroom where everything works out just the way one imagines it.
Obama and Hillary's foreign policy is already an abject failure.
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