Thanks! James C Zoes

Thanks for your Letter To the Editor dated Monday, October 12, 2009. It is entitled "Defense decision". I think you were much too kind in using this title; I would have used the title "Defense sellout". On Sept. 17 President Obama sent the wrong message to Russia; that we perhaps were not really that concerned about Eastern Europe. When the President cancelled the ABM missile defense of Eastern Europe it sent the message to Eastern Europe that they could not really count on this administration to fulfill it's promises but that the President was more concerned with satisfying the Bear, Russia on the date of the 70th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland. As you said in your letter, this did not go unnoticed in Europe but the media in the US treated it as a very minor event. In reality it reminded me of the heady days of FDR and the partitioning of Eastern Europe. Why did President Obama do it? I never heard a satisfactory answer; have any of you? If a Bear is not afraid of you it will attack and devour you. To make things even worse President Obama took the "sting" out of our Alaskan missile defence system by his budget cuts of this system which as you said effectively "standing it down". This leaves our western flank and shortest route to Russia vulnerable. What will he do next; recall all our ballistic missile subs and have them sit in port and have them shut down their nuclear power plants?

I do not understand the man, President Obama and I do not understand why he is not taking his first and foremost responsibility more seriously; to protect the security of the United States of America and its' citizens more seriously. Can anyone give me a good and reasonable answer to this question? Weakness is never rewarded by peace in this real world we live in....history has told us so over the millenniums.