A top expert at the Council on Foreign Relations backed Obama's decision.
"The system that President George W. Bush proposed ... would have deployed interceptor missiles that had yet to be tested under real-world conditions to defend against long-range missiles that Iran had yet to develop," said the council's senior vice president, James Lindsay.
"Meanwhile, the interceptors would have been useless against the short- and medium-range missiles that Iran is rapidly developing," he said in a written statement.
I'll also note that Obama acted with the unanimous support of Robert Gates and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The issue of which missile system is most likely to work, works against the right things, and is most cost effective is a different problem than which missile system makes the most sense in our relations with Russia. I know juuuuust enough about missile defense to believe that Obama went with the better missile defense system for this threat given the information that he has. I don't know enough about relations with Russia to know whether or not it was an ideal move there.
In any case, while Russia may be happy with our actions, I doubt Iran is really looking forward to us having destroyers in the waters off their coast by 2011. Just saying.
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I had to look up CNS news. Never heard of them till today... I found it quite amusing that they were saying they were unbiased when, clearly, they are. I am not saying that other new sites are any less, but if you're going to make a big deal of your impartiality at least put the effort in.
Didn't you hear? Fox News is all "fair and balanced" news. They are, in fact, famous for their "no spin zone". Because if they say it often enough, it must be true.
And yes, I've always found it amusing as well.
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"I may disagree with what you have to say, but I shall defend, to the death, your right to say it."
Hm, we're stopping deployment of a system that would be ineffective against the threats we faced, in a move approved up by the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Smart move.
CNS News is a creation of the Media Research Center, a conservative group that believes that media is liberal biased, and endorsed by the likes of Rush Limbaugh. They sell ""Don’t Believe the Liberal Media" pens, bumper stickers and magnets" Kind of says how balanced they are.
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"In theory, theory and practice are the same, but in practice, theory and practice are different."
CNS News is a creation of the Media Research Center, a conservative group that believes that media is liberal biased, and endorsed by the likes of Rush Limbaugh. They sell ""Don’t Believe the Liberal Media" pens, bumper stickers and magnets" Kind of says how balanced they are.
My favorite was the article about how concerning the fact that seniors have been overlooked for the high risk groups for H1N1 vaccine, but pregnant women, healthcare workers, and young people are on there.
....... The reason it's not incredibly important for seniors to get the vaccine is that most of them are immune to something remarkably like the current H1N1, and most young people's immune systems have just about no defense to anything like it. Seniors should get the seasonal flu vaccine, and depending on how much of the H1N1 vaccine we have, they should maybe get that too, but it's not a conspiracy or politics, it's science.
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In related news, the nation's elderly have been denied free access to acne medication and embarrassingly inappropriate stiffening of particular parts of the male anatomy in math classes across the country. Liberal Conspiracy, or Secret Left-Wing Plot?
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Does it sound logical that I would talk about the mother of a big white guy with a gun?
i like how all the attacks are directed against cns news and fail to defend obamas stupid decision. its not like cns made up the story. i guess i should have looked for the "balanced" version on cnn or the huffington post right? why not just raise a white flag to the russians and iranians?
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no taxation without representation!
i like how all the attacks are directed against cns news and fail to defend obamas stupid decision. its not like cns made up the story. i guess i should have looked for the "balanced" version on cnn or the huffington post right? why not just raise a white flag to the russians and iranians?
Jeff's post said everything perfectly, would you feel better if everone would copy and paste his post?
Try again
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"There is a fine line between clever and stupid" David St. Hubbins
i am sure the joint chiefs of staff didnt want to do anything to prepare to stop hitler before pearl harbor. its called being prepared. russia is on the rise again and so is iran. we need to be prepared. if we can spend billions of dollars wasting money on bailouts stimulus cash for clunkers, and free healthcare for illegals, i think we can afford to protect americans.
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no taxation without representation!
i like how all the attacks are directed against cns news and fail to defend obamas stupid decision. its not like cns made up the story. i guess i should have looked for the "balanced" version on cnn or the huffington post right? why not just raise a white flag to the russians and iranians?
To quote someone dear to your heart, "YOU LIE!" It is fundamentally incorrect that all the attacks are directed against CNS News.
I made many points why this was a good decision military-wise --- or, at the very least, a reasonable decision. It does not raise a white flag to the Iranians, it puts destroyers off their coasts in a couple years. I admitted, and I admit again, that I do not know enough about International relations with Russia to determine if it was an ideal decision there.
I will admit that in the stories I read, CNS largely got the facts they reported correct. They just missed majorly important facts. Obama decided to suspend a missile defense program----- but he also started a new one that many believe will work better. Seniors aren't on the priority list for the swine flu vaccine-- but they don't need to be. One of Obama's science advisers once commented that someone else had made a rational argument that trees should be able to have legal standing in court----- but our legal system is already weird enough that cash has a sort of legal standing, and once that's true, why the hell not trees too?
Is a story that correctly states that a black man was seen walking past a white woman when she died, but failed to mention that she died from a lightning strike fair and balanced?
It is just about impossible for any one human to be bias-free on any issue, and they certainly can't be all the time. I am VERY skeptical of anyone or any organization that claims to be bias free. That's why, when something seems off, you're supposed to look many different places.
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