Opinion Forum

Foreign Policy

September 19th, 2009

Our country has decided to be the first in this century to desert Poland and most of eastern Europe. The Administration elected to appease Russia instead. This, of course, isn’t the first time that Poland and her neighboring countries have been betrayed for this reason. This is, however, the first betrayal in my memory of an America ally.

This follows closely what is being heralded by many as a break with Israel because of the West Bank settlements. While eastern Europe may swallow their collective pride and submit to our phony foreign policy, Israel looks to be another story.

Ms. Clinton to date has shown absolutely no talent as Secretary of State; alas, every time a crisis pops up she is the last to hear of it or speak about it. She may or may not have any ability as a negotiator, but until she is tested we won’t know.

The missile defense/shield system was not a bad idea. It should have been put in place. The President scrapped the system in order to appease Putin in Russia. I sometimes wonder if our President knows who he is working for.

The treatment of Israel because of the West Bank is very Jimmy Carter, and once again the President takes control, leaving Hillary Clinton to clean up afterwards. Israel is far too important as an ally to just leave hanging. At present we are playing carrot and stick with Israel.

The sellout of Poland and the Czech Republic appears to be a done deal. Nothing was learned when England’s Neville Chamberlain sold out Czechoslovakia and several of her neighbors so Hitler could be appeased.

Our foreign policy is no better than our domestic undertakings. Health care, clean energy, and finance reform are all just a big mess. About what you’d expect from those of little experience or training.

Next time you have to blow your nose on your sleeve, think of what I’m telling you.

Articles written by Larry Ennis
Tags: foreign policy, Hillary Clinton, Israel, Obama, Poland
Categories: History, News, Politics | Comments (4) | Home

4 Responses to “Foreign Policy”

Tom | September 20th, 2009 at 2:38 am

I agree that Clinton often seems to be an outsider where the White House is concerned, sometimes even on foreign policy decisions. And I often wonder whether she’s acting as a politician or a diplomat, but that’s not surprising, given that she’s the first pure politician to be SecState in a very long time.

I’m not so sure that it ever was a good idea to put defensive missiles in Poland and the Czech Republic. First, the missile system itself isn’t proven. Second, what’s the threat? The idea that Iran is itching to fire missiles at Eastern Europe is pretty goofy to start with, and they’re not likely to have that capability anytime in the near future. In truth, the whole idea was to build confidence in the region and to underline their separation from Russia and its influence. All it did was anger Russia, and that’s a pretty high price to pay for very little return.

The policy change already has already resulted in a positive reaction from Russia, which has scrapped its plan to deploy missiles near Poland. All things considered, the decision may turn out to have been a good one.

Brianna | September 21st, 2009 at 10:17 am

“they’re not likely to have that capability anytime in the near future”

I’d be very reluctant to commit to that assertion, considering they managed to launch a satellite into orbit. A Sputnik-sized effort, yes, but it still represents a critical threshold that has been crossed. I do admit that their launch success rate would probably be on the order of German V2 rockets, and that their chances of hitting what they’re aiming at would be abot the same as well. But if you’re able to achieve orbital flight, you’re able to achieve suborbital flight, and that’s really all firing a missile is: sending a small object into suborbital flight.

Tom | September 21st, 2009 at 11:55 am

Brianna, you’re right that Iran launched a satellite about six months ago. However, it was crude, Sputnik-level technology, as you noted. It’s a very long way from that to being able to launch a long-range ballistic missile with a nuclear warhead on it and have it hit a target and detonate the warhead. Even using a conventional large warhead instead of a nuclear warhead is a serious challenge. Missiles and warheads have to be designed, built, and tested, and there’s no way that could happen without U.S. and other intelligence services knowing about it. All things considered, I doubt they’ll have either capability any time soon.

As any intelligence officer will tell you, capabilities are one thing, intentions are another. Even assuming they develop the capability to hit Eastern Europe with a missile of some kind, why would they do it? They may be goofy, but they’re not insane.

The threat to Israel is much more serious, of course. That requires much less range capability, and a fat conventional warhead would do them just fine — basically the same thing Iraq did. Again, though, they’d be crazy to do it because of the certain retaliation that would follow.

All things considered, I don’t think there’s much reason to have defensive missiles in Easter Europe. What we really need to pay attention to is the likelihood of an Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear facilities.

Brianna | September 22nd, 2009 at 12:50 pm

I actually wasn’t thinking of nukes when I wrote the post. I was thinking of something very similar to V-2’s… rocket-propelled, conventional explosives with the ability to cross the distance between Iran and Poland, which I do believe to be within Iran’s technical capability. Would such things be likely to hit their targets? No; the size of their target ellipses would probably be about the same size as Poland itself. The launch success rate of such an endeavor would probably also be depressingly low. But would the law of averages eventually work in their favor if they tried lobbing enough of them? Yes.

Regarding motivation, I agree that they would have no motive to attack Poland or Eastern Europe. But I did want to point out that, even if they had no motive, saying they did not have the technological *capability* to do so was probably a little optimistic.

As for Israel, I completely agree that while Poland is really only in Iran’s theoretical range, lobbing a conventional explosive over to Israel would probably be no problem and is certainly the much more serious threat.