Jake Tapper asked Robert Gibbs, answering press questions this morning, why John McCain didn't know about the new strategy. Tapper asks about whether there has been enough debate on this decision. CBS' Chip Reid follows on. So expect to hear it played that way in the news today. Gibbs was disturbed that media reports this morning suggested that Obama had scrapped missile defense altogether.
Here's an update: McCain says new strategy is wrong. Toby Gati, an expert in U.S.- Russia relations, said under Bush, we just did the opposite of what Russia wanted. But under Obama, we're actually thinking of our national security interests first and if that aligns with Russia, so be it.
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President Obama has decided to abandon plans for a long-range missile defense system based in Poland and the Czech Republic that had been embraced by the administration of former president George W. Bush, possibly shifting to a shorter-range, sea-based system, officials said Thursday.Mitt Romney and others had criticized Obama for his stance on missile defense during the 2008 campaign. Obama said he didn't want to weaponize space and he wanted a system that would work. Watch that here.
The White House announced that Obama would make a statement on missile defense at 10:15 a.m., just before a news conference at the Pentagon. Officials said Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, would detail what they called a "major" change in U.S. plans for missile defense.
"We will announce that we are making a major adjustment to our European missile defense system that is designed to protect our forces and our friends in Europe from the growing Iranian short- and medium-range missile threat," said Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary.
The Bush-era plan to place interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar system in the Czech Republic had been cheered by the governments of the two Eastern Europe countries but had deeply angered Russian leaders. Arms-control analysts had speculated in recent weeks that Obama might consider a sea-launched or other missile defense system that wasn't based permanently in Eastern Europe to counter the potential Iranian threat.
A decision to scrap the missile shield would represent a major break from Obama's predecessor. It was expected to raise the ire of some Republicans in Congress who have been strong defenders of the system as a way to counter a potential Iranian nuclear attack.
However, the decision would likely be hailed in Moscow as a major breakthrough in helping to "reset" U.S.-Russian relations, which had chilled under Bush. The Russians had viewed the prospect of a missile shield system on their western border as an affront. Relocating it could remove a major impediment from U.S.-Russian efforts to find a replacement for the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START, which expires in early December. WaPo
