There are only three groups of people who don’t like President Obama’s missile defense plan: Russians, Iranians, and Republicans. Mitt Romney likes to talk about big game about getting tough on Russia and Iran, but when it comes to missile defense, he may as well be sharing a playbook with Vladimir Putin and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
What’s going on here? Well, Mitt Romney is in Poland for the second day in a row. During a blustering speech in Reno last week, he accused President Obama of “abandoning” Poland. Why? Because President Obama decided to deploy a different type of missile defense system in Poland than the system preferred by President George W. Bush. President Obama opted for a system that’s more cost effective, more flexible, and more likely to work. But that’s not all.
Shortly after President Obama took office, the Pentagon released a document called the Ballistic Missile Defense Review Report. During the review process, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and the Joint Chiefs of Staff recommended a new approach to missile defense. President Obama listened, and acted accordingly. Unlike President Bush’s system, President Obama’s system targeted a specific, strategic threat: Iran.
Iran doesn’t care much for the new system. It’s just one more reminder of President Obama’s methodological campaign to ratchet up pressure on Iran, which has led to the strongest sanctions regime in history against Iran and its nuclear program. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad himself took a swipe at the missile defense system, denouncing it because it protects Israel. He’s right about that, of course, but standing side-by-side with Israel is a top priority for the Obama Administration. As is often the case, an insult from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is really more of a compliment.
As for the Russians, they like President Obama’s missile defense plans so much that they’re threating to bomb its sites in Eastern Europe. Talk like that is most likely all hat and no cattle, but it goes to show that Russia is not at all keen on seeing the system survive in the way President Obama envisioned it. Which means Mitt Romney’s description of the system as a concession to Russia is about as accurate as calling Russian elections fair and free.
To sum up, on the one side we have President Obama, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and former Defense Secretary Robert Gates. We also have NATO and its 28 member-states, including Poland. In the opposite camp we have Iran, Russia, and Mitt Romney. But not only Mitt Romney, we also have Republicans like Senator Mitch McConnell and Speaker of the House John Boehner, who have criticized the system from the very beginning.
So the question becomes: Who do you trust? If a man is known by the company he keeps, then Mitt Romney and the Republicans do not come off looking so good. Instead of offering concrete solutions to international challenges, Governor Romney is traveling to Europe to treat Poland as a prop for his own muddled foreign policy positions. It’s condescending to the Poles, but hey, it just might be reassuring in Moscow and Tehran.
Franco Ripple is a Truman Partner.
