Charles Schumer has a plan to deal with Iran: To enlist Russia’s help, the U.S. must lie prostrate before Vladimir Putin, recognize “Russia’s traditional role in the [Caspian Sea] region” and renege on our prior NATO commitment to erect a missile shield protecting our Eastern European allies. In today’s Wall Street Journal, Senator Schumer writes:
Two years ago, under NATO auspices, Poland, the Czech Republic and Romania agreed to build an antimissile defense site to thwart the threat of a nuclear missile attack by Iran. The threat is hypothetical and remote, and the Bush administration’s emphasis on pursuing the antimissile system, without Russia’s cooperation, still baffles many national security experts.
It also drives Mr. Putin to apoplexy. The antimissile system strengthens the relationship between Eastern Europe and NATO, with real troops and equipment on the ground. It mocks Mr. Putin’s dream of eventually restoring Russian hegemony over Eastern Europe. [Emphasis added.]
Senator Schumer would have us encourage this dream?
After it became clear that George Bush misread what he saw when he looked into Putin’s “soul,” galvanizing pro-American NATO opinion in opposition to Russia became a critical goal. In fact, Max Boot has lamented in CONTENTIONS that we did not go far enough in achieving this end during April’s NATO summit. It is stunning that as Putin and his successor continue to shut down freedoms and intimidate neighbors, an American Senator would call for support for an increasingly autocratic regime.
As for the “hypothetical and remote” threat of an Iranian missile attack, the missiles are real, not imaginary, and the threat is both audible and on repeat play. Just yesterday Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared “I tell you that with the unity and awareness of all the Islamic countries all the satanic powers will soon be destroyed.”
Schumer is correct that we need stricter sanctions on Iran, but giving up our national values and selling out our allies in return for Russia’s assistance is hardly the way to go about it.
