In a brief statement Thursday morning, Obama killed the Eastern Europe missle defense shield.  If all you heard was his speech, however, you might not even know it.  The President painted the U.S. policy reversal as a grand new endeavor, full of new technology, better defensive strategies, stronger alliances, and as per usual, no specifics of any kind.  Beneath all the rhetoric is a cave-in of historic proportions, giving Putin exactly what he’s been demanding for the last few years.

At the same time they were giving Putin a major win, the administration also downplayed the threat of Iranian missles.  Joe Biden, who earlier this week refused to confirm rumors that the missle shield program was being scrapped, did explain that  “I am less concerned — much less concerned — about the Iranian potential. They have no potential at this moment, they have no capacity to launch a missile at the United States of America.”

This may be true but completely ignores their potential to hit Eastern Europe.  Then again, so what?  Remember, Obama believes that they’re just a “Tiny” country – not a serious threat.  In fact, his decision to hand Putin such a victory might be explained by comments he made last year at an Oregon town hall.

“Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, these countries are tiny compared to the Soviet Union,” Obama said, ”They don’t pose a serious threat to us the way the Soviet Union posed a threat to us.”  Is the President scared of Putin?  Has he “looked into his soul” and decided he’d better not anger the former KGB agent?

As always, Obama kept things classy by choosing the 70th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland to announce that the United States would be abandoning the missile shield there.  An unnamed source in the Polish Defense Ministry told CNN that “This is catastrophic for Poland.”

At least Poland can rest easy knowing that, while they may have to contend with Russia, Joe Biden believes that Iran isn’t a substantial threat.  After all, it’s not like Iran’s working on nuclear weapons or anything. 

Oh wait…  Just yesterday, French President Sarkozy told lawmakers that ”It is a certainty to all of our secret services. Iran is working today on a nuclear weapons program.”

Hmmm…  Well, I’m sure they have no intentions of using it.  Right Mr. Obama?  ‘Cuz if they did, y’know, that shield might come in handy….

- Robert Laurie