And To Hear The Lamentation Of The Wingers

By Crom, the Obama administration's plans to scrap the European missile defense shield program has set off the cries of the end of the Republic from the usual useless whiners.

Robert Farley at LGM sums up the cacaphony of stupidity:

That keening you hear is the sound of a million wailing wingnuts. The Poles and Czechs will be disappointed, but they'll live; there are other ways of conveying a long term commitment to Eastern European security if we so choose. Indeed, some of these ways might actually have something to do with Eastern European security, rather than with a set of expensive techno-fantasies jury-rigged to a manufactured geo-strategic threat. Nevertheless, the screech of "EMP!!!" is one that you can get used to hearing in the near future; no President actually born in the United States would be so dismissive of ineffectually (but expensively!) protecting America from non-existent boogeymen.

Let's be clear; this is a huge victory for common sense over fantasy, and for responsible defense budgeting. This project had no function other than to serve the pecuniary interest of the missile defense industry, and to sate the ideological lust of conservatives infatuated with St. Reagan. No convincing strategic logic could ever be provided for the program; advocates careened wildly between arguments, desperately trying to see if they could make anything stick. Protecting Europe from Iranian missiles? Nobody in Europe was particularly concerned, or, outside of Poland and the Czech Republic, really wanted the defense. Protecting from the Russians? By the admission of advocates, the shield could not have served as a deterrent to Russian attacks. Necessary to demonstrate our commitment to the Poles? Meh; I'd rather get them something they could actually use.

I love how "Conservatives" could give a aerial quantum of fecal matter about tens of millions of uninsured Americans here in the homeland and declare we can't afford to save those lives, but go into conniptions should their multi-trillion dollar unproven technology of using missiles to shoot down other missiles that the bad guys don't have be touched.

It's like they care more about Poland than Peoria. Here's something to keep in mind, Republicans...the folks in Poland don't get to vote here.

[UPDATE 1:48 PM] What this? A reasonable and logical argument in Obama's favor from Tom Nichols at the National Review Online?

Despite the outcry that President Obama has sold out the Europeans and caved to the Russians by cancelling missile defenses in Europe, it was the right thing to do. Those defenses were not going to work (or work well enough or soon enough to matter in any major crisis with Iran), and the diplomatic price we were paying for them was far out of proportion to any small gains we might have made by annoying the Russians or reassuring the Czechs and the Poles. (The stated reason for the cancellation — that we’re more worried about medium-range missile threats — is technically accurate, but only for the moment, and sounds more like a rationalization than a reason.)

Sure, the rest of the post is the usual "But now we have to go make faces at Iran and THE RUSSIAN BEAR to let them know how scary we are!" but the opening paragraph is precisely why the missile defense shield was a huge pile of crap.