Well that didn’t take long. No sooner had I decried the notion that President Barack Obama’s decision to move (but not cancel) the US’s proposed missile defence shield from eastern europe than, sure enough, up more folk arrive to suggest that OMG! It’s Munich All Over Again! This time it’s Rich Lowry, editor of National Review, who, in a fit of blinding orginality, argues:
Enough with this Munichean Worldview, please! Not least because, as it turns out, the Poles and the Czechs are not, publicly at least, unhappy with this development. (Nor, for that matter, was the missile defence plan ever very popular amongst Czech and Polish voters.)With just one announcement, the Obama administration undercut two loyal allies, rewarded Russian bullying, and diminished our ability to counter an emerging Iranian threat. If there were awards for self-defeating weakness, this move would deserve a Neville for Appeasement in a Perpetually Threatened Region.
Lowry’s logic – which, remember, demands that Russia wants to invade Poland and the rest of Eastern Europe – loses whatever grip on reality it ever had, however, when he adds:
The Russians loathe the very idea of the missile-defense sites, claiming they threaten its nuclear deterrent.
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