Two Points About the Abandonment of Eastern Europe

Today, an editorial in the Telegraph excoriates President Obama for having surrendered the missile defense system in Poland and Czechloslovakia.

Be in no doubt about the stakes: the defensive system that Mr Obama has chosen to scrap was the West's ultimate insurance policy against a nuclear-armed Iran. If all our efforts to prevent Tehran from acquiring a nuclear arsenal were to fail, this anti-missile shield would have provided a measure of assurance.

Blah blah blah. If you read between the lines, here's what you get:

1. Several first-world, technologically advanced, wealthy nations - England, Germany and France to name three - are wetting their beds because a country 4000 miles away isn't stepping in to protect them. Nowhere in all of these cries of outrage is there a Plan B wherein European anti-missile systems will step in and fill the gap. They aren't even talking about beginning a program to develop them. They quit trying to protect themselves so long ago that they no longer even think in those terms. Which leads to ...


2. President Obama wants us to be more like them. Look, they've got national health care! They've got terrific social programs! They spend their money on butter, not guns! If only we were more like them! They're also completely defenseless unless The Wild-eyed Cowboy steps in and protects them.

One of the most critical jobs of any national government is to protect its citizens. Without that, it exists at the sufferance of its enemies. Pansy Euros, so eager to legalize drugs and prostitution and gay marriage and hand out all manners of goodies like health care and welfare checks not only can't do this, but they don't even consider it an option.

I'll say one thing for President Obama. He's going to reveal just what the world will look like when the entire West looks like Europe.

The European missile defense system.