Costly Bush-era missile defence plan ditched as Obama plays Russia card

Published on Thursday 17 September 2009 22:05

PRESIDENT Barack Obama yesterday dumped a Bush-era missile defence plan for Europe that Russia had bitterly opposed.

In a move that could spur regional fears of resurgent Kremlin influence, Mr Obama said he had approved recommendations from United States military leaders to shift focus to defending against Iran's short-term and medium-term missiles.

"This new approach will provide capabilities sooner, build on proven systems and offer greater defences against the threat of missile attack," Mr Obama said, scrapping expensive plans that had been put in place by the Bush administration for ground-based interceptors in Poland and a related radar site in the Czech Republic.

The president informed the Czech and Polish governments of his decision hours before the announcement.

Moscow said it would welcome the decision to drop George Bush's project, which had complicated US efforts to enlist Russian support on Afghanistan, Iran and nuclear arms control.

But critics accused the White House of dangerous weakness. Senator John McCain, the Republican candidate who lost the 2008 presidential election to Mr Obama, called the move "seriously misguided".

And the former US ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, a leading Bush-era hawk, was scathing.

"Russia and Iran are the big winners," he said. "It's a bad day for American national security."

The Bush administration had proposed the system – which remains largely untested – amid concern that Iran was trying to develop nuclear warheads for use on long-range missiles.

The shield was intended as a fixed defence against long-range missile launches from "rogue" states. But Russia saw it as a threat to its own missile defences.

Outlining the new approach, defence secretary Robert Gates said yesterday that the US would deploy Aegis combat system-equipped ships with interceptors capable of blowing up ballistic missiles above the atmosphere, to defend both European allies and US forces.

Mr Gates said land-based defence systems would be fielded in a second phase starting in about 2015.

"We now have the opportunity to deploy new sensors and interceptors in northern and southern Europe that can provide missile defence coverage against more immediate threats from Iran or others," he said.

The White House rejected Republican charges that it had made a major concession to Moscow without winning anything in return. "This is not about Russia," the White House spokesman, Robert Gibbs, said, adding there was no quid pro.

But other Democrats said they hoped for a pay-off on Iran.

Senator Charles Schumer said: "It is time for Russia to join our push to impose stricter sanctions on Iran."

Poles and Czechs in two minds over shelved missile plan

FOR the Czech and Polish governments, America's decision to shelve plans to install a missile shield in Central Europe forced them into some delicate political footwork.

Reacting to the news, each expressed their understanding of the reasons behind the Obama administration's decision, along with the desire that their countries form part of any future American defence system intended for Europe.

But at the same time disappointment was evident. Both Warsaw and Prague had invested a huge amount of political capital in the shield, which, they believed, not only would provide cast-iron security from potential attack but came with a huge added symbolic value.

To Central European governments wary of a resurgent Russia flexing its political muscles after years of decay and inertia, the shield would have provided tangible evidence that the United States was an ally to be relied on.

Poland, especially, is still haunted by the West's apparent failures in the Second World War to stand by its commitments and defend Polish interests.

Now, by walking away from the missile shield, the US could rekindle latent fears among some Poles over insecurity and the unreliability of allies.

At the same time, to many in Poland and the Czech Republic the shield's shelving came as welcome news.

Opinion polls in both countries always showed that the majority of the public opposed the plan despite the protracted efforts of their respective governments to get them to think otherwise.

To many Poles and Czechs, the shield, designed to stop missiles from "rogue" states such as Iran, had little to do with their own defensive needs, since countries such as Iran were not seen as a threat to national security.

At the same time, by agreeing to host the shield, Poland and the Czech Republic had angered Russia, a country that many would prefer to keep happy rather than antagonise.

Also, the missile shield was tainted by the fact that it was a key policy of former President George Bush. Never popular in central Europe, it was viewed, along with many of his other polices, with great wariness by both Czechs and Poles.

Matthew Day in Warsaw