So who comes out ahead of President Obama’s decision to freeze or scrap Europe-based, Bush-era anti-missile sites?
According to this op-ed by Dominique Jung of France’s Les Dernieres Nouvelles d’Alsace, Barack Obama is looking like a pretty good card player right at the moment.
For Les Dernières Nouvelles d’Alsace, Dominique Jung writes of why East and West Europe differ in their reactions to the move:
“France and Germany, mindful of ensuring that the United States doesn’t see Europe as a protectorate, have also saluted Obama’s decision. In this, they differ from the former ‘East European satellite’ countries that joined the European Union in 2004, which are very disappointed by what they see as allegiance to Moscow. They suffered so much from Soviet domination, anything that defies the Kremlin makes them happy – which is why Warsaw and Prague welcomed Bush’s project.”
As to the benefits to the United States, Jung writes in part:
“In the end, the White House gamble is quite a reasonable one. If later, Russia doesn’t respond to his outstretched hand, Obama will have lost nothing. But what Obama will have is an objective reason to toughen his policy if Russia decides to go it alone in Caucasus or is uncooperative in Afghanistan. … If in addition it helps eliminate an extremely expensive project with uncertain effectiveness, so much the better. Only fans of military escalation will cry heresy. For now, Obama is one card ahead of Moscow and Tehran. Clever!”
By Dominique Jung
Translated By Sandrine Ageorges
September 19, 2009
France – Les Dernières Nouvelles d’Alsace – Home Page (French)
Barack Obama’s abandonment of the anti-missile system George Bush wanted to deploy in Poland and the Czech Republic is an important decision.
Apart from for the competition with China and the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, the decision focuses directly on the main diplomatic issues that Obama must confront: relations with the European allies; relations with Russia; attitudes toward Iran; the evaluation of the threats that weigh on the United States; and the size of the U.S. defense budget.
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