The post yesterday Berman Post: Obama to Drop Missile Shield For Russian Help Stopping Iran? was confirmed true. True that Obama was willing to drop the European missile defense in exchange for Russia helping stop Iran from going nuclear. Russia said thanks but no thanks. They do not what those two issues linked to each other for negotiation purposes. The simple translation is that halting our program will not ensure their help.
Good. I opined in the last post (linked to above) why this was a bad idea. Unfortunately, I am not sure that we will go ahead with the missile shield even after the snub from Russia. Part of me thinks that Obama intended to cancel the program anyway and was seeing if they could get something out of it. If that is the case it will look even worse now. Think about it; we offer to cancel a program in exchange for there help because they do not want us to continue, they decline the exchange, and then we ... cancel the program anyways!?! Our credibility in future negotiations would take strong hit.
More at http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/258257,russia-rejects-link-between-missile-defence-and-iran--update.html and http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,4068869,00.html.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
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