Obama scraps missile shield, right move?

“Speak softly and carry a big stick."

Except when dealing with the Russians. My veins pump with Russian blood and today was an inferior foreign policy strategist bending under the might of the Russian hammer. There are two very distinct approaches to today's move and both have to be considered.

If you think scrapping Bush's missile shield was anything other than a gift to the Russians, think again. This is a country whose population and leadership crave power and control, always have and always will. With their economy reeling and their influence marginalized they will do anything in their power to exert influence over the inferior European countries. Just like they plowed into Georgia for the sake of expansion, they will do the same in every other region under the pretext of unification. Of course after they have wrongly implanted their brethren in every corner of Europe, this pretext becomes hard to swallow. We must never forget that the Russian people in large part crave authoritarian leadership for no other reason then to feel important. With half of the Russian youth thinking Stalin did more good than bad one almost feels OK with our burgeoning Truther population. That being said, should America take it upon itself to curb the resurgence of the Iron Curtain?

Yes and No. America should always act in a way consistent with preserving it's safety. Many people err here and assume America must protect it's interests, but that would be the wrong approach and contradictory to preserving our safety. If we feel that our safety is somehow compromised, then we are allowed to act accordingly, but just like with Iraq a door opens for egregious errors. So what are America's interests here? Presumably the safety of our European allies, Poland and Czech Republic. While we should always strive to build partnerships and secure trading pathways, to consider the aforementioned countries a strategic requirement might be a stretch. In fact, America for too long has via direct funding and the utterly inept United Nations paid for the security of Europe. Worse yet, American taxpayers are on the hook of playing bodyguard for the ever growing collective welfare state known as Europe. European leaders are busily nannying their citizens into paralysis while espousing their socialist virtues, big bad America runs around policing the world.

While the cost of the missile shield is a small price to pay to keep the belligerent Russians at bay and possibly avoid further escalation, we should cross the bridge once we get there. If we attempt to play defense in all parts of the world where danger lurks we will run out of money - oops, already did. We need to seriously consider pulling back our soldiers, bases and presence and today could potentially be the right move. Offense is the best defense and when Russia decides to take a swipe at Ukraine over Crimea, we should consider teaching them a lesson. However the difficulty in doing so is the obvious over expansion of our military might, something we need to reign in while we can.

Ultimately determining the correctness of today's move will only be possible in the coming years, but one should always be careful when dealing with a country such as Russia.