Betraying allies in a different way!

Fox news reported today that Obama sent a letter to the Russian President saying that the need to place a missile defense shield in Europe would be unnecessary if they, Russia, helped us solve the Iranian nuclear crisis. Okay, I get that he wants diplomacy to work but I want to give you a little history lesson. Ronald Reagan did something very smart to win the cold war. He knew that the missile defense shield we were working on would not work for a very long time, but he never let the Soviet Union know that. In fact, they were desperately trying to get him to give up on missile defense and he consistently refused to do so. This, in conjunction with other acts, were designed to get them, the Soviets, to spend money they couldn't afford. It drove them into bankruptcy trying to keep up with us in military spending and technology. At any rate, Clinton killed missile defense and Bush reinstated it. So, I'm not really surprised that Obama would give up on missile defense, even though it actually appears that it could work now. Nevertheless, right or wrong, the Bush administration made a promised to several of our European allies, Poland and the Czech Republic among them, that our missile defense technology would be deployed in their countries to help protect them against rogue states. So, I ask, did Obama inform those countries of his letter to the Russians? After all, between Russia and Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic saw some of the most horrible abuses of the twentieth century. I wonder how their leaders feel today. They've been significantly better allies to this country than our "traditional" allies who have worked hard to undermine us rather than help us over the last nine years. I'm sure they feel betrayed today. Whether the shield works or not isn't the point here. The point is that we have cultivated a strong relationship with the eastern European countries after they gained their freedom from the Soviet Union. So, now, it seems that the President, who campaigned on repairing our image overseas and working closely with our allies, doesn't value those relationships, but instead would rather work with our "old traditional" allies and our former enemies in order to make a threat go away. Build missile defense and it doesn't matter if Iran can deliver one by a missile to us or any of our allies. Give it up in exchange for "help" from Russia makes our allies more vulnerable. This includes Israel, and our western European allies, not just those eastern European ones. Of course, I actually doubt that we'd even continue to build it. The economy is awful and this is a logical place to cut spending. It is a convenient target. Missile defense doesn't solve true terrorist threats, but it would help against rogue states. In the end, none of this really matters much. But Obama has just betrayed our allies just as he has consistently accused Bush of doing, he just managed to do it in a completely new way.