Excerpts from an editorial in The Guardian yesterday:
The Obama effect is here, and coming to a continent near you. Barely a week after his inauguration, Russian defense officials announced yesterday that they had halted plans to deploy missiles near the Polish border. If the decision is confirmed, it would make it easier for America’s new president to shelve the missile defense shield planned for Poland and the Czech Republic.
The missile defense shield was one of the most unilateral and reckless military ideas of the Bush presidency. The idea was never liked by the Democrats. Zbigniew Brzezinski, Polish-born and no admirer of Moscow, called it a system that did not work, against a missile that did not exist, for a Europe that did not want it. On pragmatic grounds, he said, Obama should put the program on the backburner. A Democrat-controlled Congress would be more than willing to oblige by starving it of funds. There is no doubt this thought has also occurred to Obama. But what would he demand from the Russians in return?
The Russian decision yesterday appears to give this process a helpful nudge. And for good reason. There are those who continue to argue that the only way of curbing the belligerent nationalism of Russia is to confront it. The Georgians like to say that when you run out of fish to feed a crocodile, it will take off your arm. But they forget that the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty or START-1 expires on Dec. 5 this year. While there is no shortage of ideas around for further reductions in nuclear arsenals, including an influential movement of former US arms negotiators and statesmen who want to reduce to stockpile to zero, any big new idea requires a framework. Talks require a working relationship.
