Missile defense: Who betrayed who?
A CBS News headline exclaims "East European officials: US betrayed us." Why do the tantrums of foreign political leaders make headline news, but not the reaction of American taxpayers -- the people who funded this Bush Administration give-away to a powerful corporate lobby? Who was really betrayed by missile defense? How about the people who wrote the check for it?
Now that the Obama administration has scrapped the original plans, officials in the host countries who had supported the program at huge political costs feel betrayed.Am I missing something? Do Americans care about the "political cost" paid by some politician in Warsaw more than they care about the "actual cost" of the program to taxpayers like themselves? What moral obligation do Americans have to pay for Poland's defense anyway?* I suspect the most significant thing Poland pays for is Washington lobbyists -- and possibly the PR firms that have helped the corporate American news media to "report" this kind of news.
"They're thinking we've been sold out," Crowley said. "They're so upset that in Poland they didn't even take the phone call from Hillary Clinton at first. They're very upset at the Obama administration [thinking] 'We went out on a limb.'"
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*Interestingly, Poland and the United States are probably the two Western countries where religious conservatives have the greatest influence over policy decisions.
1 comments:
Liberals love to talk about multilateralism except when it comes to upholding security agreements with countries that have traditionally relied on the U.S. for their defense - you know, like when it really matters. Diplomacy has now become code for downgrading your alliances to placate your enemies, which is both futile and dangerous.
Your note on the religiosity of Poland and the U.S. is also utterly irrelevant. Just another attempt to make ad hom attacks and ham-handedly bash religion.
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