Conservative Leaders Speak Out on Obama Missile Defense Decision

MEMO FOR THE MOVEMENT

Missile Defense, National Security and the Obama Administration

RE: The announcement that the Obama Administration will abandon Missile Defense in Poland and the Czech Republic represents a massive surrender of American Strategic Influence and a betrayal of two of our closest friends in the region. The move also indicates appeasement towards Russia, and a misunderstanding of the seriousness of the potential nuclear capability of Iran.

“The first nine months of the Obama administration have emboldened rogue dictators across the globe, and now an increasingly antagonistic Russia has been rewarded for bullying and threatening its neighbors. Not since the Carter administration has America looked so weak on the international stage.”

-Congressman Mike Pence, Indiana

ACTION:

We urge you to contact your elected officials in Washington, DC and tell them that the removal of missile defense plans was unwise and unwarranted and that we should not be practicing appeasement with other nations that want to interfere with the security interests of the United States.

ISSUE-IN-BRIEF: The abandonment of missile defense in Eastern Europe just one year after Russia invaded Georgia, and 70 years to the day after the Soviet Union invaded Poland, demonstrates that the Obama administration is continuing its policy of appeasing adversaries at the expense of our national security and the security of our allies. This move is only the latest in a string of national security decisions made by the Obama Administration which weaken the United States in the eyes of the world, which may be perilous to the well-being of our country and which could have a detrimental effect on peace in the world.

The Obama Administration has apparently decided to scrap the Polish and Czech anti-missile system because of objections from Russia – not because Russia is threatened by the system, but because of its desire for regional domination of the former states of the Soviet Union. By appeasing the Kremlin, the Obama foreign policy team believes, it may get more cooperation on the imposition of sanctions against Iran for its failure to negotiate over the Iranian nuclear ballistic missile program.

The installation of a missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic would provide “the fastest and most cost-effective protection against the long-range missiles that Iran is projected to have by 2015,” according to Lt. Gen. Trey Obering (ret.), former head of the Missile Defense Agency, and Eric Edelman, fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Analysis, in a recent op-ed.

Beyond the strategic protection afforded by the missile defense system, scrapping it in Poland and the Czech Republic is a shameful abandonment of America’s friends in eastern and central Europe, and a slap in the face for those who actually believed that the US would stand by its agreements.

Abandonment of missile defense is not the only national security area where the Obama Administration has been derelict in its duty. In the following regions of concern, the administration has taken ill-advised positions, and is undermining America’s security.

· NORTH KOREA. Until recently the U.S. has insisted that it would negotiate directly with North Korea only on the condition that the North rejoins the six-party talks. One-on-one contact, requested by North Korea, would only occur in order to push Pyongyang back into multilateral negotiations over its atomic projects. Now Pyongyang claims to be close to the ability of enriching uranium, a development that would give it a second means of building nuclear weapons. As a result, the Obama Administration has announced that it will abandon the six-party-first requirement and meet one-on-one with Pyongyang negotiators.

· ISRAEL AND IRAN. President Obama gave Iran a deadline of October 1 to commence negotiations on its nuclear program. Iran has instead offered to talk on a range of non-related issues, but will not discuss nuclear issues – what the Wall Street Journal describes as the diplomatic equivalent of a giant kiss-off. Obama has also dropped Iran from his agenda in his Sept 24 meeting at the UN Security Council, telling the world that the deadline will pass and the US will do nothing. Instead, there is increasing belief that Israel will launch a strike to cripple, or at least delay Iran’s nuclear program. Such a strike could be catastrophic to peace in the Middle East, could strain the flow of oil through the Straits of Hormuz, and would certainly intensify the belief among other world leaders that the US is, again, a paper tiger.

· RUSSIA. According to Stratfor, the private intelligence firm, “In Moscow, the general view is that Obama is weak and inexperienced and is frightened of military confrontation…” When asked by the US to impose sanctions on Iran, Moscow refused, hoping that the US will remain bogged down in the Middle East and thus unable to deploy forces in Chechnya, Poland, the Czech Republic or other former Soviet states and satellites. Obama’s capitulation on missile defense will be viewed as a victory by Moscow, and will further weaken the United States in the eyes of the Russian regime.

· HONDURAS AND LATIN AMERICA. The Administration continues to support deposed Honduran strong-man and head of state Manuel Zelaya over democracy, insisting that Zelaya be returned to power in violation of the Honduran constitution — consistent with demands of Venezuelan’s leftist repressive-thug leader Hugo Chavez. Recently, the State Department has terminated $30 million in foreign aid to Honduras, and is allegedly threatening other neighboring countries to support the US position or suffer the consequences.

· THE INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY. Effective intelligence capabilities are crucial to the conduct of foreign policy and to military action. Yet the Obama Administration appears to be doing its best to emasculate and demoralize the American intelligence community. Attorney General Eric Holder’s recent appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate CIA officers (who have already been investigated) for abuse of suicidal terrorist prisoners will be devastating to the morale and long-term effectiveness of the Agency; the Administration has failed to back the intelligence community in squabbles with the Democratic leadership of Congress concerning briefings given by CIA officials, and has furthermore failed to clearly delineate lines of authority between the various intelligence agencies, causing significant internal battles that should not exist.

CONSERVATIVE ACTION PROJECT

Cliff May, President, Foundation for Defense of Democracies

Edwin Meese, former Attorney General

Elaine Donnelly, President, Center for Military Readiness

Tony Perkins, President, Family Research Council

Becky Norton Dunlop, President, Council for National Policy

James C. Miller III, former Reagan Budget Director

Wendy Wright, President, Concerned Women for America

Alfred Regnery, Publisher, American Spectator

Brent Bozell, President, Media Research Center

Richard Viguerie, Chairman, ConservativeHQ.com

David McIntosh, former Member of Congress, Indiana