National Review Pleads To Obama: Reverse Course On Gutting Missile Defense

from Closing Velocity
May 29, 2009

A good read on North Korea's nuclear test and how it should prompt an immediate course reversal by President Obama:

In the short term, the U.S. should do three things. First, reaffirm the strength of its alliances with Japan, South Korea, and other regional democracies. Second, work with these allies to squeeze North Korea’s finances through new sanctions and targeted asset freezes. (Locking down North Korean accounts at Banco Delta in late 2005 had a real impact on Pyongyang.) Third, boost funding for missile-defense programs and expand missile-defense collaboration in East Asia.

The Obama administration already is reassuring our allies and surely will pursue a fresh batch of sanctions. But it has sought to slash funding for the Missile Defense Agency and to scale back missile-defense implementation overseas. As former Clinton administration defense secretary William Cohen, hardly a right-winger or a fierce partisan, wrote yesterday in the Washington Times, “Cutting missile-defense funding at this critical juncture sends the wrong signal to both our adversaries and our allies. It would embolden North Korea, Iran, and other rogue states to pursue nissiles of increasing range. It would also confuse our allies and undermine their trust in America’s security guarantees.”

This administration already has learned to reverse itself when national security requires it. Changing course on missile defense is necessary, and it is urgent.

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