First Phase Of New Missile Defense Plan Could Take Place By 2011

By Ravi Bhatia-Talk Radio News Service

The first phase of the Eastern Europe new missile defense strategy proposed by the Obama administration could be executed by 2011, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Michele Fluornoy said during her testimony before the House Armed Services Committee Thursday.

According to Fluornoy, the former plan proposed by the Bush administration would not have been implemented until at least 2017.

The congressional members of HASC and Dept. of Defense officials also discussed the technical aspects and international repercussions of President Obama’s new plan for missile defense.

“The intelligence community now assesses that the threat from Iran’s short and medium-range ballistic missiles is developing more rapidly than previously projected, while the threat of potential Iranian Intercontinental Ballistic Missile capabilities has been slower to develop,” Fluornoy said in a released statement. “[This means that] the primary threat posed by Iranian missiles will be to U.S allies, our 80,000 deployed forces in the Middle East and Europe, and our civilian personnel.”

The new plan eliminates the Bush administration’s missile defense system, which would have deployed a radar system in the Czech Republic or 10, 20-ton Ground Based Interceptors in Poland in order to deter as many as ten long-range missiles. The new approach relies on a distributed network of sensors and one-ton SM-3 interceptors, which are 20 times lighter then the GBIs employed by the former plan but are not restricted to land-based launches.

HASC Chairman Ike Skelton (D-Miss), and other members of HASC, noted that the Obama administration’s plan was not entirely due to the administration's efforts, and that the plan stemmed from bipartisan Congressional action in 2006.

“In 2006, the National Defense Authorization Act established a policy of the United States to accord priority to developing, testing, and fielding near-term effective missile defense systems,” he said. “In our bill two years ago, we made it the policy of the United States to develop, test, and deploy effective missile defenses for our forward-based forces, our allies, and our homeland against the threat posed by Iran’s existing and potential ballistic missiles.”

Rep. Buck McKeon (R-Ca.), Ranking Member of the HASC, discussed some of the issues that some Republicans have with the defense plan, particularly in light of Iran publicly testing their long-range missile capabilities last week.

“I’m skeptical,” he said. “There seems to be this certainty within the administration that the Iranians can't develop an IRBM or an ICBM by 2015, and that these aren’t real threats to be worried about. Does this certainty consider foreign assistance? Does this certainty account for uncertainty? Intelligence is a risky business. Friday’s revelation that Iran is building a covert uranium facility is a case in point.”

Romney: Obama Has Failed So Far

By Travis Martinez
University of New Mexico- Talk Radio News Service

Mitt Romney doesn’t think the last eight months of Barack Obama’s presidency have been successful. In an hour-long speech to hundreds of Republicans last Saturday, Romney said that Obama has failed with healthcare reform, economic redevelopment, stimulus funding and foreign relations.

What President Obama has done these past eight months [stimulus and bailout packages]... has not strengthened America,” said Romney at the 2009 Family Research Council Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C. “To strengthen the economy and create jobs the President has to stop trying to borrow the country out of a debt problem... don’t repeat the stimulus, repair the stimulus.”

Romney, a former Massachusetts governor and 2008 presidential candidate, criticized Obama's approach to foreign policy. Last week, the Obama Administration made headlines when it was announced that the U.S. will scrap the 2007 European missile defense program. Romney called the decision “alarming, and dangerous... We should never cut corners in our military and intelligence agencies,” he said.

With healthcare, Romney said that reform would make a healthier and a stronger nation, but without a public option and less government control. He cited successful reform in Massachusetts that was implemented without a public option. “The right answer for health care is not more government, it’s less government,” said Romney. “As a Republican, I worked very hard to reform health care in my own state... It does teach an important lesson that you can get everyone insured without a public option.”

Romney did not talk about his future career in politics, but said: “The voters are going to make their intentions clear in the 2010 elections.”

Sec. of State Clinton Previews U.S. Agenda For U.N. General Assembly

By Ravi Bhatia, Talk Radio News Service

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton discussed Friday the U.S agenda for the upcoming United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), touching on issues such as the Obama administration’s missile defense strategy, the conflict in the Middle East, nuclear proliferation and the threat posed by Iran.

While she read her speech at the Brookings Institute in Washington, D.C., she discussed the “ambitious” intentions of the Obama administration at next week’s UNGA in New York, and alluded to a long term goal of a world “with no nuclear weapons.” While fielding questions, she reflected on the state of American foreign policy today.

“For many years, [the U.S] outsourced our policy and concerns about the nuclear program to others to try to intervene with and persuade Iran to change course,” she said. “So we were on the sidelines...we were just trying to figure out how to get other people to go on the field and deal with this problem and look where we are today. We’re really nowhere.”

Clinton also discussed the Obama administration’s missile defense strategy, which was retooled to focus on defending the United States and its allies in Europe from short and mid-range missile attacks. The strategy rejects the Bush administration's plan to station interceptors in the Czech Republic and Poland that were intended to stop long-range missiles that the current administration believes Iran does not have. Since Poland and the Czech Republic will no longer have land-based interceptors, the new plan eases pressure on Russia, displeasing some Republican members of Congress upon Obama’s announcement of the strategy on Thursday.

“This decision was not about Russia,” she said. “It was about Iran and the threat its ballistic missile program poses. Because of this position, we believe we will be in a far stronger position to deal with that threat and to do so with technology that works and a higher degree of confidence that what we pledge to do we can actually deliver.”

She later discussed Iran and the repercussions the country must face for not revealing its intentions to the international community for nuclear technology.

“Our concern is not Iran’s right to develop peaceful nuclear energy, but its responsibility to demonstrate that it’s program is intended exclusively for peaceful purposes,” she said. “This is not hard to do. The Iranian government seeks a sense of justice in the world, but stands in the way of the justice it seeks.”

In response to a question from Brookings Institute President Strobe Talbott, Clinton also discussed the U.S. government’s strategy for restructuring the country’s health care policy.

“It’s interesting that what we are proposing is fundamentally so conservative compared with so many of our friends and allies around the world, who do a much better job then we do in covering everybody and keeping costs down,” Clinton said. “And yet some of the political opposition is so overheated. We have to calm down here, take two aspirin, go to bed, think about it in the morning. But I’m optimistic.”

Sen. Schumer Shoots Down Proposed Iranian Missile Shield

Travis Martinez, University of New Mexico, Talk Radio News Service

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) defended the scrapping of a missle shield aimed at preventing an attack from Iran Thursday morning after a meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

"The missile shield is an ineffective and expensive way to deal with missiles," said Schumer.

The initial plan, which would have established a missle defense sysytem in Poland and the Czech Republic, was recently halted by President Barack Obama.

Schumer went on to say that the missle shield would only antagnonize the Russians and suggested an economic deterrent to Iran's alleged nuclear pursuit.

"We need to squeeze them economically," said Schumer.

Secretary Clinton left without comment.

Defense Spending Bill Includes Plan For Enemy Combatants

Defense Spending Bill Includes Plan For Enemy Combatants

The legislation that will streamline Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ vision of a sleeker military will also include provisions dictating how the U.S. will try enemy combatants.

“Military commissions...can play a legitimate role in prosecuting violations of the law of war, but only if they meet standards of fairness which have been established by the Supreme Court,” said Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) during a press conference Thursday.

As it stands, the National Defense Authorization Bill For Fiscal Year 2010 does not address the fate of Guantanamo detainees, but their eventual destination is expected to be a major issue when the bill goes to the Senate floor in approximately two weeks.

While the bill cuts funding for a variety of out-of-date or wasteful programs, including the production of the VH-71 Presidential Helicopter and the transformational satellite program, funding for F22-Raptor jets remained untouched. On Wednesday President Barack Obama announced that he would veto the bill unless the F22 program was discontinued.