Obama, Gates defend move to scrap Bush missile shield

Obama weighs in

President Obama followed up Gates's words by firmly addressing the issue during interviews for the Sunday morning talk shows.

"The Russians don't make determinations about what our defense posture is," Obama told CBS. "If the by-product of it is that the Russians feel a little less paranoid ... then that's a bonus."

"Russia had always been paranoid about this, but George Bush was right. This wasn't a threat to them," Obama said, adding that it would be a bonus if the Russians were "now willing to work more effectively with us to deal with threats like ballistic missiles from Iran or nuclear development in Iran."

Will Russia cooperate on those issues? That's the million-dollar question.

Early indications aren't bad.

Mr. Putin described Obama's decision as "correct and brave." Russia announced this weekend that it would scrap plans to deploy missiles near Poland.

And as Iran's nuclear program again becomes a focus in coming weeks, it should become apparent just how hard a line Russia is willing to take on Iran.

The world will be watching for signs when Obama meets this week with Russian President Dimitry Medvedev in New York where both are attending the UN General Assembly.

No one should hold his breath, however.

As the Monitor reported last week, the issues are not easily solved.

“It may be that Russia will be more amenable, but this is a deeply complicated issue,” Fyodor Lukyanov, editor of Russia in Global Affairs, a leading Moscow foreign policy journal, told the Monitor. “On Iran, and other regional conflicts, the differences between Moscow and Washington are deep, and that hasn’t changed.”

Meanwhile, critics at home continue to hammer Obama's decision.

"I find it alarming and dangerous that this president has abandoned our friends in Eastern Europe to curry favor with our foes in Russia," 2008 presidential contender Mitt Romney told the Reuters news agency on Sunday.

"This is just the latest chapter in Barack Obama's 'Capitulation & Appeasement Tour 2009.' " screams an editorial in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. "Not only has the administration caved to the Russians for nothing in return, it dangerously downplays Iranian capabilities at the exact moment others are ramping up the threat. ... The bottom line is that the United States has made yet another bad decision in pursuit of coddling its enemies and shafting its allies."

– Material from the wires was used in this report.

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