OPINION:
President Obama has promised incoming Russian President Vladimir Putin that the United States will make itself weaker for Russia by agreeing not to improve our anti-missile defenses against any possible ballistic missile attacks (“Hot mic: Obama begs Russians for ’space’ on missile defense talks,” Web, March 26).
This promise was given to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in an open-microphone gaffe overheard last month. In the conversation, Mr. Obama pleaded for more “space” to maneuver and said he would have more flexibility after his presidential election was over. He implied he would then be able to give the Russians what they wanted.
When Mr. Obama knew that he had been caught, he tried to laugh it off by covering a microphone in the next meeting. Apparently many Obama supporters do not care very much about this gaffe, but all the world leaders, including those in Europe and Israel, took note.
According to a former insider of the Clinton administration, in the Obama promise to stop improvements and allow our defenses to become weaker, Mr. Obama is reasserting a somewhat similar policy of President Bill Clinton toward Russia. That is, he is promising not to improve U.S. anti-missile defenses, which could possibly lead to the sacrifice of our country and the lives of the American people. The sacrifice is justified by a radical leftist ideology devoted to completely disarming America because of our “immoral” wars and past actions against various peoples.
Apparently, it did not matter then to President Clinton - and it does not matter now to Mr. Obama - that Russia shared (and will share again) our anti-missile research information with Iran, North Korea, communist China and terrorist organizations. Reportedly, during 24 recent anti-missile defense tests, our armed forces have scored 24 interceptions of ballistic missiles and 20 of them have been “kisses,” in which our defense missiles actually made contact with the incoming targets before destroying them.
Mr. Putin and his partially reconstructed Soviet empire are deathly afraid that our anti-missile defense superiority will make the Russian missile threat to the world irrelevant and relegate Russia to third-world status.
In addition to his open-microphone gaffe, Mr. Obama appears increasingly devious and dishonest. Consider the following: His recent mandate that Catholic church agencies provide birth-control services against their principles, the unconstitutionality of his health care agenda and, after a 17-year-old boy was shot and killed under disputed circumstances, the only memorable words from the president were that if he had a son, that son would look like the boy who was shot.
LT. COL. DOMINIK GEORGE NARGELE
U.S. Marine Corps, retired
Arlington
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