NEW YORK — President Obama made a sound strategic decision, scrapping former President George W. Bush's technologically dubious plan to build a long-range missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic. Instead, the Pentagon will deploy a less-ambitious but more feasible system of interceptors and sensors, first on ships and later on land.
Mr. Bush's plan was flawed in three fundamental ways. The technology was nowhere near ready. The threat it was supposed to defend against - an Iranian intercontinental ballistic missile - was also years away. And the plan (and Mr.
Bush's ham-fisted insistence onit) gave Moscow a far-too-convenient excuse to rail against the West's encroachment and shirk its responsibility to help contain Iran's nuclear ambitions.
The new system addresses the first two problems. The technology exists and can be deployed much sooner than the Bush system. And it is intended to counter a more immediate danger: Iran's short- and medium-range missiles that could threaten Europe or Israel. Still, managing the diplomacy - particularly the disappointment of the Central Europeans - and the politics in this country will require a very deft hand. : - The New York Times
Opinion, Pages 4 on 09/24/2009