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Obama scraps Bush-era Europe missile shield
Key Republicans blast shift that president says was urged by Pentagon
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'Axis of evil' missile shield scrubbed Sept. 17: Republican critics called President Barack Obama's decision to scrap a Bush Administration plan to base a missile defense system in Eastern Europe "misguided," but the Pentagon and NATO supported his push for "a smaller, smarter, swifter" system. NBC White House Correspondent Savannah Guthrie reports. Nightly News |
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 | Obama explains Medvedev missile letter March 3: President Obama discusses his letter to Russian Prime Minister Medvedev, saying the U.S. missile defense system is geared toward a threat from Iran, not Russia. MSNBC |
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 | Palin’s nuclear fears April 7: Gov. Sarah Palin, R-Alaksa, criticized the Obama administration’s proposed cuts to missile defense programs saying the U.S. needs a shield so her state isn’t hit by a nuclear weapon. A Hardball panel debates her claims. Hardball |
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 Instituting a war surtax Nov. 23: Playbook: If President Barack Obama chooses to send more troops to Afghanistan, should the U.S. government raise taxes to pay for it? Rep. Eric Massa, D-N.Y., discusses. |
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WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama on Thursday scrapped the Bush-era plan for a missile shield to defend Eastern Europe, prompting some Republicans to immediately accuse the White House of going soft.
Obama promised a redesigned defensive system, saying it would be cheaper, quicker and more effective against the threat from Iranian missiles. The Bush-era plan had complicated ties with Russia, which objected to where the shield installations would be built.
Anticipating criticism from the right that he was weakening America's security, Obama said repeatedly that this decision would provide more — not less — protection.
"Our new missile defense architecture in Europe will provide stronger, smarter and swifter defenses of American forces and America's allies," Obama said. "It is more comprehensive than the previous program; it deploys capabilities that are proven and cost effective, and it sustains and builds upon our commitment to protect the U.S. homeland."
Obama said the decision had been made based on "unanimous recommendations" by his national security team, including Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
McCain: 'Seriously misguided'
Sen. John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate who lost to Obama in 2008, blasted the move as "seriously misguided" and said it would fray ties with Eastern European nations that "are increasingly wary of renewed Russian adventurism."
John Bolton, a leading hawk during the Bush administration as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said it was "just unambiguously bad decision. Russia and Iran are the big winners. I just think it's a bad day for American national security."
House Minority Leader John Boehner echoed those views. "Scrapping the U.S. missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic does little more than empower Russia and Iran at the expense of our allies in Europe,” he said in a statement. "It shows a willful determination to continue ignoring the threat posed by some of the most dangerous regimes in the world, while taking one of most important defenses against Iran off the table."
The Bush-era system was to have been built in the Czech Republic and Poland. Obama phoned Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer on Wednesday night and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Thursday to alert them of his decision.
Obama said the plan was scrapped in part because, after a review, the United States has concluded that Iran is less focused on developing the kind of long-range missiles for which the system was originally developed, making the building of an expensive new shield unnecessary. New technology also has arisen that military advisers decided could be deployed sooner and more effectively, he said.
‘Updated intelligence assessment’
Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the decision to abandon the plan came about because of a change in the U.S. perception of the threat posed by Iran.
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The New York Times, quoting people familiar with the matter, reported that the revised plan would call for the deployment of smaller SM-3 missiles, initially aboard ships and later likely in Turkey or southern Europe.
"Our review has been driven by an updated intelligence assessment of Iran's missile programs and new advances in our missile defense capabilities and technologies," The Times quoted an administration official saying on condition of anonymity.
The Times reported that recent intelligence indicated that Iran was moving quickly toward developing short- and medium-range missiles. The reconfigured U.S. defense system would be calibrated more specifically toward meeting that threat by stationing interceptor missiles closer to Iran, administration officials told The Times.
OBama said the United States will continue to work cooperatively with what he called "our close friends and allies" — the Czech Republic and Poland, which had agreed to host the Bush-planned shield at considerable cost in public opinion and their relations with Russia.
He also made a reference to Russia and its long and heated objections to the shield. "Its concerns about our previous missile defense programs were entirely unfounded," Obama said.
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