Obama abandons missile sheild in Poland and Czech Republic

President Obama has abandoned US allies Poland and the Czech republic by scrapping the planned missile shield. The interceptors missiles and radar stations planned to be stationed in Poland and the Czech Republic, respectively, were meant to destroy nuclear equipped Iranian missiles.

However Russia wasn't too pleased about the plans and President Obama caved in to their demands in the hopes that Russia would not send the S-300 anti-aircraft system to Iran and be more cooperative with regards to sanctions against Iran.

Back in July, the Russians stated "There are no reasons to link these issues or count on Russia being more cooperative in toughening sanctions against Iran if there is progress in talks with the United States on further cuts in strategic offensive weapons," .

With regards to the S-300 system, Russia has only given vague assurances that they will not send the system to Iran. But I'm of the opinion that Russia wouldn't like to see the Israelis destroy all of the Russian nuclear reactors in Iran.

So Obama scraps the missile shield for absolutely no gain in diplomatic ties with Russia or for any progress on the Iranian nuke issue. Yahoo! News

PRAGUE – President Barack Obama has decided to scrap plans for a U.S. missile defense shield in the Czech Republic and Poland that had deeply angered Russia, the Czech prime minister confirmed Thursday.

NATO's new chief hailed the move as "a positive step" and a Russian analyst said Obama's decision will increase the chances that Russia will cooperate more closely with the United States in the dispute over Iran's nuclear program.

HA! That's why Russia stated it will not endorse any new sanctions against Iran.

Premier Jan Fischer told reporters that Obama phoned him overnight to say that "his government is pulling out of plans to build a missile defense radar on Czech territory."

"The same happened with Poland. Poland was informed in the same way about this intention," Fischer said[...]

The plan, proposed by the Bush administration, aimed to defend the United States and its European allies against a possible missile attack from Iran or elsewhere in the Middle East. In all, 10 interceptor rockets were to have been stationed in Poland and a radar system based in the Czech Republic.