Obama makes right call on Europe missiles

Instant criticism of the decision as weakness and appeasement of Iran and Russia is predictable but without merit. Mobile anti-missile systems are credible. North Korea, unlike Iran, has actually carried out primitive nuclear explosions. Last July, as Pyongyang rattled rockets yet again, Secretary Gates ordered deployment of a Lockheed Martin THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Air Defense) anti-missile system to protect Hawaii, a publicized possible target.

We have a vital interest in cooperation with Russia, where anxiety concerning potential military threats from Europe is strongly rooted in history. Extremist groups have had success in proselytizing among the very large Islamic populations of the former Soviet Union. Moscow also controls extensive petroleum and other mineral resources. Finally, Obama's visit this past summer resulted in a useful agreement to permit Allied supplies being sent to Afghanistan to transit through Russia.

To protest the Bush administration's Czech-Poland missile plans, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev announced the deployment of Iskander missiles to Kaliningrad, a forward area close to Western Europe. Russian leader Vladimir Putin compared the Bush initiative to Nikita Khrushchev's attempt to put strategic missiles in Cuba, which led to the momentous Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.

Obama's decision to go ahead with an anti-missile deployment also reflects powerful long-term lobbying for this type of weapon. President Eisenhower, in his 1961 White House farewell address, made pointed reference to a very powerful “military-industrial complex.” Ike was hardly anti-military, but was extremely insightful regarding the dangers of the enormous defense establishment.

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