U.S. Representative Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI) (Dylan fan and former Q&A subject) said this today on President Obama’s decision to scrap the long-planned missile defense system involving Poland and the Czech Republic:

“Today, on the 70th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland, President Obama announced that he will abandon the country’s missile defense program, effectively abandoning our strategic relationship with Poland and the Czech Republic.

“The Polish Ministry of Defense Spokeswoman said of the move, ‘This is catastrophic for Poland.’ To be clear, this is catastrophic for all free nations.

“At best, it signals a pattern of apathy toward our allies and the threats they face. At worst, it is Russian appeasement and accedes to the idea that Central and Eastern European countries belong in Russia’s sphere of influence.

John Bolton also commented:

“I think this is a near catastrophe for American relations with Eastern European countries and many in NATO,” he said. “It was the kind of unilateral decision that the Bush administration was always criticised for and I think the clear winners are in Russia and Iran.”

Why is Obama doing it? Even if you somewhat buy the line that a re-evaluation of the system indicated that it wasn’t “cost-effective,” the price of a new U.S. president being seen to have capitulated to Putin is, by contrast, incalculable. Again, why do it? Has Russia agreed, behind the scenes, to support genuinely crippling sanctions against Iran over their nuclear program? If so, that at least would be a benefit worth weighing, although it seems highly unlikely, and time will tell shortly. Or is it simply being done so that Russia will agree to one of Obama’s pet goals; namely, a new arms-control agreement?

Is Obama abandoning important allies and encouraging Russia to flex its muscles beyond its borders simply to satisfy a kind of 1970s, Carter-era fetish for arms-control agreements? Is the reduction of the U.S. stockpile of nuclear weapons more important to this administration than defense against the nuclear weapons of rogue nations?

Arms control agreements do not prevent war. Sturdy and intimidating defenses do. Those are lessons history teaches; but then, as they say, those who fail to learn from history ….

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