Marathon Pundit: McConnell on the abandonment of the Eastern European missile defense program

Thursday, September 17, 2009

McConnell on the abandonment of the Eastern European missile defense program

Reports that Barack Obama will abandon a missile defense program set up under former President George W. Bush is today's big news story, most likely to the surprise of the White House--otherwise they would have released the news on Friday "news dump" day.

The missiles were to be based in the Czech Republic and Poland, and it comes on an ominous day--the 70th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of eastern Poland.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) released this statement regarding the cancelled project:

The administration’s decision to abandon an important missile defense program for the defense of NATO and our allies in Poland and the Czech Republic, in my view, is both shortsighted and harmful to our long-term security interests. We must not turn our backs on two loyal allies in the War on Terror. Further, the administration has secured no apparent commitment from the Russians to work with us to reduce either the missile or nuclear threat from Iran. More troubling will be if the administration has made these concessions to Russia in pursuit of expediting ill-considered arms control deals.