Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Washington Post
October 7, 2009
Pg. 4
Vice President Biden will travel to Poland, Romania and the Czech Republic this month on a mission that appears in part designed to reassure worried allies of U.S. resolve.
The four-day trip, scheduled to begin Oct. 20, will take the first high-level U.S. delegation to those countries since President Obama announced last month that he would not proceed with an anti-ballistic missile shield in Eastern Europe.
Poland and the Czech Republic had agreed to host elements of the planned system -- a legacy of the Bush administration -- that Russia considered a severe NATO encroachment on its traditional sphere of influence. Instead of deploying a shield to protect against long-range missiles, particularly those from Iran, Obama said he would move forward with a sea-based system that would target short- and medium-range missiles.
The policy reversal alarmed some Eastern Europeans, who took it as a sign that Obama would give in too easily to Russian demands.
-- Scott Wilson andMichael A. Fletcher
October 7, 2009
Pg. 4
Vice President Biden will travel to Poland, Romania and the Czech Republic this month on a mission that appears in part designed to reassure worried allies of U.S. resolve.
The four-day trip, scheduled to begin Oct. 20, will take the first high-level U.S. delegation to those countries since President Obama announced last month that he would not proceed with an anti-ballistic missile shield in Eastern Europe.
Poland and the Czech Republic had agreed to host elements of the planned system -- a legacy of the Bush administration -- that Russia considered a severe NATO encroachment on its traditional sphere of influence. Instead of deploying a shield to protect against long-range missiles, particularly those from Iran, Obama said he would move forward with a sea-based system that would target short- and medium-range missiles.
The policy reversal alarmed some Eastern Europeans, who took it as a sign that Obama would give in too easily to Russian demands.
-- Scott Wilson andMichael A. Fletcher