President Barack Obama sent a secret letter to Russia’s president last month suggesting that he would back off deploying a new missile defense system in Eastern Europe if Moscow would help stop Iran from developing long-range weapons, American officials said Monday.
The letter to President Dmitri A. Medvedev was hand-delivered in Moscow by top administration officials three weeks ago. It said the United States would not need to proceed with the interceptor system, which has been vehemently opposed by Russia since it was proposed by the Bush administration, if Iran halted any efforts to build nuclear warheads and ballistic missiles.
The officials who described the contents of the message requested anonymity because it has not been made public. While they said it did not offer a direct quid pro quo, the letter was intended to give Moscow incentive to join the United States in a common front against Iran. Russia’s military, diplomatic and commercial ties to Tehran give it some influence there, but it has often resisted Washington’s hard line against Iran.
Will Obama repeat Carter’s “I can’t believe the Russians lied to me” mistake?
[blockquote]Will Obama repeat Carter’s “I can’t believe the Russians lied to me†mistake?[/blockquote]
Maybe. But there’s another possibility: this may be Gates’ work. Offer the Russians a deal they can’t accept, and, when they refuse it, go right ahead with the missle defense system for Eastern Europe. Consider this: the Iranians don’t have a long-standing grudge against Poland (or anyone else in Eastern Europe last I checked), so the move may be designed to pressure the Russians to rein in the Iranians. Machiavellian, to say the least. Continuation of Bush’s policies, probably; at least conceivable that W would have done this. We know that the current president doesn’t care about foreign policy, and he certainly seems happy enough to farm it out to others. Gates is a grown-up. He will try to do the right thing. Just sayin’…
Ham-handed and amateurish. This guy better get smart in one darn big hurry; this is the big leagues, not a Chicago ‘community’ backwater. This episode certainly adds to my belief that there are far, far better Presidential training grounds than merely doing a stint as a ‘community organizer.”
I don’t know, folks, this might not be a bad concession to make to Russia. Missile defense is still not a proven technology, but the Russians are definitely helping Iran with their nuke tech. So we trade something ephemeral for something concrete…not too bad an idea, though the devil will be in the details.