What an historic occasion:
Phew! It's good to hear Iran isn't a threat. Of course, not all observers share V.P. Biden's sanguine attitude:

But what the heck! Didn't Barack Obama say he was going to "reset" the U.S./Russian relationship? Didn't Hillary Clinton make a special trip to Russia to present her Russian counterpart with a great big red Staples®-like button with some Russian phrase on it that roughly translated into: "Push my button, I'm easy" or some such?

This announcement of Washington's abandonment of its Eastern European allies is rather auspicious, coming as it is on the 70th anniversary of the September 17, 1939 Soviet invasion of Poland.

I recall how George W. Bush was roundly criticized for his own effort to get along with Vladimir Putin back in the day, saying how he had looked into Putin's eyes to get "a sense of his soul." Bush was wrong. However, one might also note Bush held firm against Russian blustering about the missile defense shield which the Polish and Czech governments welcomed with gratitude.

This time around it was Putin who looked into Barack Obama's underwear and didn't find anything.

I'm really scared now, because Russia is going to come over here now and take away everything I worked so hard all my life for, like my sofa and large screen tv.

They are going to bomb me and take over this country and then we'll all have to learn Russian. Well, it so happens I already speak Russian, so screw them. I'm not afraid.

I'll bet you scared a lot of other people though. People who don't speak Russian or English very well.

The fact that Barack Obama would seek to defend his decision to abandon two of American's better allies in Eastern Europe isn't particularly surprising given his obvious preference for Latin American dictators. His personal hubris and arrogance is mind boggling. But some of his announced defense is incomprehensible in face of the evidence:
However:

• On February 2, Iran successfully launched a satellite into orbit using a rocket with technology similar to that used in a long-range ballistic missile.
• On May 20, Iran test-fired a 1200-mile solid-fueled two-stage ballistic missile.
• On July 15, Germany’s foreign intelligence service, BND, announced that Iran will be able to produce and test a nuclear weapon within six months. BND also stated that it has “no doubt” that Iran’s missile program is aimed solely at the production of nuclear warheads.
• On August 3, The Times of London reported that Western intelligence sources concluded that Iran has not only perfected the technology to build and detonate a nuclear weapon, could assemble a weapon in just six months, and could deliver the weapon on Iran’s Shebab-3 ballistic missile.
• Just yesterday, September 16, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said: “It is a certainty to all of our secret services. Iran is working today on a nuclear [weapons] program.”

Meanwhile, as Obama is blathering on and on about how cost effective his sea-based plan will be that pesky Congressional Budge Office (the same CBO that puts the lie to Obama's Health Care Reform "no-additional-deficit" claim) says abandoning the current missile defense plan and going with what Obama wants to do is going to cost 3 times more while providing a less-than-comparable defensive capability. Or to put use the short form, it will cost tons more in dollars and provide tons less in defense.

About the only people happy with this decision are the Russians and, presumably the Iranians, and presumably Barack Obama's good buddies the Venezuelans who have promised to help Iran with their nuclear ambitions following Russia's promise of nuclear help for the Venezuelans. Hey, wait a minute! Wasn't it Vladamir Putin who told Barack Obama that if Obama would just shelve the anti-missile system that HE would help stop Iran's nuclear ambitions? Hmmm.

Side note: If Hillary Clinton had a shred of self-respect. If she had a scintilla of dignity. Is she had even an iota of loyalty to her own country she would immediate resign as Secretary of State. And she wouldn't spout any nonsense about wanting to spend more time with the family. She's stand up and say: "I can no longer, in good conscience, continue to represent the United States to the rest of the world as a member of this administration." And then she'd get our her her Rolodex and start getting her 2012 presidential campaign team together.

Oh noes! Are they purchasing yellowcake in Nigeria????

Quit hauling out Chamberlain. I swear right wingers want to dig him up and make love to him, they use him so often.

The Iranians don't have good enough rockets to be a substantial threat, neither does it seem their program was going in the direction of making nuclear missiles the last time I looked. If you have more information on the current state of the Iranian nuclear program, please post it.

The missile shield was going to consist of what? 10 missiles? The Russians shouldn't have acted the way they did over the piddling little defense system, but the World isn't really much unsafer just because those few missiles wont be there.