But the decision to put in a new missile system, which could be in place by 2015, appears to have been widely interpreted as a means of appeasing Russia (republicans certainly promoted that argument), to amend those relations. The White House has said that's been a byproduct but it wasn't the reason for scrapping missile defense.
How the visit is playing in Poland:
Today, US Vice President Joe Biden arrives in Poland to reiterate America’s commitment to Eastern Europe’s peace and security. Critics have called the trip more of a public diplomacy tour to amend relations “reset” by last month’s missile-defense withdrawal. Meanwhile politicians in Poland continue to point fingers to determine who – if anybody – dropped the ball. As the political blame game bounces between Warsaw and Washington, Poland should instead take the Vice President’s visit as an opportunity to highlight its own laudable contributions to global security as key members of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).Someone else's feelings were hurt:
To date Poland has deployed 2,000 troops to Afghanistan, with most stationed in the increasingly hostile eastern Ghazni province. Out of the 42 nations contributing military personnel, Poland has the sixth largest contingent – the highest for any non-G8 country. It even has more troops on the ground than Australia or the Netherlands. Warsaw Business Journal
After a number of American decisions interpreted as slaps in Poland’s face, the U.S. now sends its Vice-President Joe Biden to the biggest Central European country for a series of conciliatory smiles, handshakes and back patting. Of course, Polish politicians smile back, but the reality is Poland no longer has that warm feeling in its heart when it thinks “America.”Some of what Obama told Bob Schieffer on the scrapping of the missile defense system:
Not a long time ago the Biden visit would be a big deal here – for decades, Poles were passionately, madly in love with the United States. America was the preferred country to immigrate to, the Promised Land with everything the best and the biggest, an idealized paradise.
Of course, Poland would like to be loved back, but despite its claim to being a power with a strong regional influence, it actually knows quite well that Central Europe and its individual countries are not important to the U.S. now that they’re stable and in NATO and the European Union. Still, the country sent a number of signals that some cordiality from the U.S. would be welcome after Poland committed its troops to Iraq and Afghanistan, and agreed to host the U.S. missile shield knowing that Russia would be furious.
If the Obama administration wanted to mend fences with Russia, it could have considered sending a senior official to Poland first to make sure winning new friends would not come at the expense of older ties. WSJ
Schieffer: You announced yesterday a major change in American strategic strategy when you said that we would not go forward with the missile defense system that would be there on the border of Russia. The Russians saw that as a poke in the eye from the very beginning. But even people who agree that that missile system is out of place are asking questions. Shouldn't you have tried to get something from the Russians in exchange for doing that?
Obama: Well keep in mind that when George Bush announced his strategy for putting missile defense in place, in the Czech Republic and in Poland, I said at the time I think we need missile defense but I want to make sure it works, that it's cost effective, that the technologies are operable, that it's our best possible strategy. And that hadn't been shown. So when I came in I asked the same people who had signed on first one - Bob Gates, my Secretary of Defense, as well as the Joint Chiefs of Staff - tell me given the intelligence you have now and the technology we possess and what we know about the Iranian threat, which always been our main concern, not Russia, tell me if the system that we've designed is the best possible system. And they came back to me and said, you know what, given what we know now we actually think that this is a better way of doing it. So we're not eliminating missile defense - in fact what we're doing is putting a system in that's more timely, more cost effective, and that meets the actual threats that we perceive coming from Iran.
Russia had always been paranoid about this, but George Bush was right, this wasn't a threat to them. And this program will not be a threat to them. So my task here was not to negotiate with the Russians. The Russians don't make determinations about what our defense posture is. We have made a decision about what will be best to protect the American people as well as our troops in Europe and our allies. If the by-product of it is that the Russians feel a little less paranoid and are now willing to work more effectively with us to deal with threats like ballistic missiles from Iran or nuclear development in Iiran, you know, then that's a bonus.
