James Carafano on Obama’s Broken Promises
The Heritage Foundation‘s James Carafano wrote about Barack Obama’s broken missile defense promises in his recent Washington Examiner column.
By now, most Americans know the president does not support strong and comprehensive missile defense. He sung a different tune during the campaign, of course, but now that he’s in office, he’s revealed his true intentions. From reneging on deals to build missile defense shields in Poland and the Czech Republic to proposing to cut $1.4 billion from the missile defense budget, it’s clear that he has other interests in mind.
Carafano says this about the proposed budget:
“The Pentagon budget the president sent to the Hill would have slashed production and deployment of U.S.-based missile interceptors by about a third. The cuts would have come from missile defenses that are already tested, proven and, for the most part, paid for. So much for the promise of “pragmatic and cost-effective” defenses.
“Case in point: The Obama budget included absolutely zero funds to replace ‘Missile Field One.’ This Alaskan missile field, now part of the missile defense shield, includes the first silos built to test the long-range interceptors.
“The silos were not built for long-term use. They now need to be replaced. But the Obama budget request zeroed out that funding … even though the budget still retained an already paid-for fleet of interceptors…Talk about penny-wise and pound-foolish!”
Carafano says this about missile defense shields in Central Europe:
“The White House also started backpedaling from the previous administration’s commitment to field missile defense interceptors in Poland that would protect both our allies and our troops in Europe from the growing Iranian missile threat. The administration tried to justify the delay by saying it wanted to look at “pragmatic and cost-effective” alternatives.
“One alternative it says it wants to consider is a mobile, land-based system. Cool, huh? Except that such a system exists nowhere other than on some PowerPoint slides. So much for ‘pragmatic.’”
It seems Obama is trying to undo what George Bush put in place without a clear plan. In other words, he’s being contrary for the sake of being contrary, not practical. Carafano discusses other programs Obama proposes to cut, including the Kinetic Energy Interceptor. Read the full column.
Tags: Barack Obama, Czech Republic, James Carafano, Kinetic Energy Interceptor, Poland