Obama's white flag diplomacy

Following in the footsteps of FDR, Obama has once again thrown Eastern Europe under the bus to fend for themselves against pressure from Moscow. Obama has decided to scrap the missile defense shield based primarily in Poland and the Czech Republic.

Vice President Joe Biden earlier refused to confirm to CNN that the George W. Bush-era plan was being shelved.

But he did explain the logic of doing so, saying Iran -- a key concern for the United States -- was not a threat.

"I think we are fully capable and secure dealing with any present or future potential Iranian threat," he told CNN's Chris Lawrence in Baghdad, where he is on a brief trip.

Got that, Iran's not a threat. Is that because they have given up their nuclear ambitions, had a change of heart about their policies in the Middle East or have decided to embrace the west ?? Nope, they are no longer a threat simply because it is politically expedient for Obama to say they are no threat. See -- problem solved. First he saved hundreds of thousands of jobs and now he has neutralized the threat of a nuclear Iran. Impressive, no ???

Of course our allies don't quite see it that way:

Poland and the Czech Republic had based much of their future security policy on getting the missile defenses from the United States. The countries share deep concerns of a future military threat from the east -- namely, Russia -- and may now look for other defense assurances from their NATO allies.

"At the NATO summit in April, we adopted a resolution focusing on building a defense system against real, existing threats, i.e. short-range and medium-range missiles," Fischer said. "We expect that the United States will continue cooperating with the Czech Republic on concluding the relevant agreements on our mutual (research and development) and military collaboration, including the financing of specific projects."

What do we tell them ?? Maybe we can use the words of Eric Stratton from Animal House: "You f**ked up, you trusted us!!" And what kind of signal does this send to Ukraine and Georgia ??

Clearly this was done with an eye toward appeasing Putin who has been bitching about this for years. But what exactly are we getting back in return. Looks like this was a unilateral move based on a hope and a prayer that the Russians will press Iran to stop their nuclear development. Although Russia has shown no inclination to do so in the past and their does not seem to be any strategic reason for them to do so now. Hopefully I am wrong.

To add insult to injury: Obama decided to do this on the 70th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland. Smart diplomacy !!