Sunday, April 10, 2011

About That 'Reset' Button

I guess the Russians don't like President Obama's vision of missile defense in Europe any more than they liked President Bush's plan. Via Instapundit, this notion from Sergey Ivanov, Russia's deputy prime minister, is worrying:

"We insist on only one thing," he said of the nascent US-backed missile defence shield. "That we are an equal part of it."

"In practical terms, that means that our office will sit for example in Brussels and agree on a red-button push to launch an interceptor missile, regardless of whether the missile is launched from Poland, Russia or the UK."

Russia has been pushing hard for a prominent role in the new missile shield for months but with little noticeable success as Washington and its allies remain deeply sceptical of Russia's reliability as a political and military partner.

The proper response to Russia's demand is "take a hike." Lord knows what our State Department will agree to.