Crossposted from Hillbilly Report.
While I have been disappointed somewhat with some of the decisions made by President Obama, the kneejerk reactions to every move he makes by the right is getting pretty ridiculous. I know the left opposed George W. Bush on many things, but in retrospect he was wrong on many things and needed to be opposed. Many times it was actually opposition based on fact in the case of Bush. For the right, it just seems to be opposition to anything Obama does because he is Obama.
The latest case in point was his decision to scrap the missle defense system dreamed up by Reagan which George W. Bush decided to build in Eastern Europe. Obama has decided to scrap this expensive program in order to enact a cheaper, more feasible line of defense. Of course on the right logic means little, if it means actually giving Obama any credit whatsoever for a good idea.
First, coming from the party that always seeks to lecture us on "fiscal responsibility" while they spent more than anyone on Corporate Welfare and used those failed policies of greed to crash our economy, the simple fact is that this program has been very costly while not ever proving itself feasible or worth that cost:
The U.S. has spent well north of $100 billion in the effort to create a technological shield to protect its mainland from incoming missiles - much of it on long-forgotten and never used systems such as Nike, Nike Zeus, Nike-X, Sentinel and Safeguard. The grandest of these, the Safeguard system, was built nearly 40 years ago in Nekoma, N.D. Huge earth-moving machines dug up 1.75 million cu. yd. of rich, black loam from the 470-acre site. Contractors built the base with 160,000 cu. yd. of concrete and 12,000 tons of steel. They crowned their work with a partly buried, 123-ft.-tall pyramid containing the system's key radar. Each of its four "eyes" had sprinklers to wash away any potential radioactive debris from collisions between the nearby nuclear-tipped interceptors and incoming Soviet missiles.
The government shut the system down after just four months in service, because of its high cost and doubts about its utility. At least when sea-launched interceptor systems are stood down, they can sail away to new assignments.
http://news.yahoo.com/...
In fact, far from betraying our allies in Eastern Europe, or scrapping some highly successful, proven program the Obama Administration has decided on a smarter, more streamlined system of defense:
Viewed from the perspective of defense priorities, what the Administration has done is shift resources away from building a costly, immovable and as yet unproven shield in central Europe to counter the potential threat of Iran's developing intercontinental ballistic missiles, instead allocating them to deploying ships carrying proven interceptor systems nearer to Iran to counter the current threat of its medium-range-missile arsenal.
Among other advantages, the ships can sail freely in international waters to meet evolving threats without obtaining consent from host countries (the Czech parliament, for example, had yet to approve the deployment of the now canceled system). What's more, they can perform missions other than missile defense, and they are considerably cheaper. "This system gives us a much more significant and robust capability to adapt to the threat as it actually emerges," Marine General James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Thursday, Sept. 17.
Yes, with all their bluster about "listening to our commanders on the ground", Republicans do not believe that Gen. Cartwright should be listened to if he actually (gasps) agrees with Obama on something. Another fact of the matter is not only did Gen. Cartwright agree with this decision, but even Robert Gates as Secretary of Defense under George W. Bush who had originally recommended the scheme of defense in Eastern Europe now believes that the Obama approach is better:
Part of the furor over Obama's decision results from the fact that ever since President Ronald Reagan launched his Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI, a.k.a. Star Wars) 26 years ago, the notion of a global missile shield has become an obsession for many of his ideological acolytes. They tend to view any retreat as surrendering to the forces of evil, even though Obama's decision was blessed by Defense Secretary Robert Gates - who had originally recommended the European scheme in 2006 while serving as Defense Secretary to President George W. Bush. In justifying the move, Gates and others cite intelligence reports that Iran - ostensibly the key target of the European shield - is emphasizing shorter-range missiles that couldn't be shot down from Poland.
Now, I do not know if all this springs from the fact that the right simply cannot accept the fact that Reagan was wrong, or if they just cannot accept the fact that a program they have argued for so long is simply not needed. Maybe it is a mixture of both. However, it is important to note that when Democrats opposed Bush so ardently he was actually wrong. On WMD, the "War on Terror", the economy and so many other things President Bush was a disaster that needed to be opposed.
So, while President Obama has been wrong on a few things in my mind and I have called him on it because I refuse to blindly follow any leader like the Republicans did for Bush as he did so much damage to this country, I also will not allow myself to just kneejerk against any idea just because of the person that submits it.
Republicans need to grow up and realize that they are wrong sometimes, well actually MOST of the time. The restructuring of our defenses in Eastern Europe is actually a great idea. It will save billions of dollars and quite simply provide a more effective way for America to defend herself and her allies. Republicans need to realize they were voted out because their party proved a complete and total failure at controlling our whole government for six years. We are still recovering as a nation for their massive failures in just about every aspect of policy.
So whether it is from racism, ideology, or just plain idiocy Republicans need to step back and take a few deep breaths and realize that until we have more elections the American people have spoken and they decided that Democrats and President Obama deserve a chance to enact a new vision of the world. Merely opposing something because it was proposed by Obama does not prove him wrong.
After all, nobody could do worse than the terribly failed ideas enacted into policy by his predecessors. If we really must kneejerk against anyone it should be those very Republicans because time and time again in the last few decades they have proven themselves wrong on everything they believe.