Beyond The Republican Assertions About The End Of The European Missile Shield Program

The guys over at my favorite naval warfare blog, Information Dissemination, sum it up:

We seem to be heading towards one of two conclusions. Either big time sanctions are applied on Iran, or Israel attacks Iran by the end of the year. Today's actions suggest Russia will support the sanctions, but I guess we will have to wait and see.

They, like me, support this move by Secretary Gates. As the last post on this blog reiterates, the State Department is ill-equipped to handle the change, but it's a good one.

We have THAAD and Aegis (and the Israelis have Arrow). Theater ballistic missile defenses work. To continue to throw money at a system that would require massive expenditures to be deployed in a decade is retarded, especially when the whole point of the "shield" was to intimidate Russia. A few well-placed F-35s and F/A-18s, along with THAAD and Aegis, could do just as well.