As Governor I fought the Obama Administration’s plans to cut funds
for missile defense in Alaska. So imagine how appalled and surprised I
was to read this article
by former Clinton CIA Director James Woolsey, appropriately titled
“Giving Away the Farm,” concerning President Obama’s latest bizarre
actions relating to missile defense.
President Obama wants to give Russia our missile defense
secrets because he believes that we can buy their friendship and
cooperation with this taxpayer-funded gift. But giving military secrets
and technologies to a rival or competitor like Russia is just plain
dumb. You can’t buy off Russia. And giving them advanced military
technology will not create stability. What happens if Russia gives this
technology (or sells it!) to other countries like Iran or China?
After all, as Woolsey points out, Russia helped Iran with its missile
and nuclear programs. Or what happens if an even more hardline leader
comes to power in the Kremlin?
We tried buying off the Kremlin with technologies in the 1970s. That
policy was a component of “detente,” and the hope was that if we would
share our technologies with them, they would become more peaceful.
Things, of course, didn’t work out that way. The Kremlin took western
technologies and embarked on a massive military building program.
History teaches that peace comes from American military strength. And a
central component of that has always been technological superiority.
Why would President Obama even dream of giving this away?
Members of Congress saw how foolish President Obama’s gambit was, so
they put a section in the defense appropriation bill that specifically
forbids the federal government from spending money to share these
technologies with the Kremlin. President Obama actually threatened to
veto the defense appropriation bill over this section of the law!
Fortunately, the House passed the bill with a veto-proof majority, a
whopping 322 to 96. Attention now turns to the Senate.
Why is it that President Obama seems to work so hard to give things
to our enemies, while at the same time asking friends and allies like
Israel to make sacrifices?
During these tough economic times when we are facing massive deficits
and a competitive global economy, does President Obama really want to
give away technologies that the American taxpayer paid lots of money to
develop? Giving away our missile defense secrets won’t make us safer.
What it will do is create a situation where we are facing an arms race with ourselves.
Russia gets access to our technologies, and we are forced to spend even
more money because of the need to stay ahead. Does this make sense to
you? Me neither. File this under “WTF.”
- Sarah Palin