The New York Times reported a few days ago that Russia appears to have violated a 1987 treaty banning the test, production, even possession, of medium-range missiles by testing a new ground-launched cruise-missile.
It seems that Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control, Verification, and Compliance Rose Gottemoeller advised NATO of the tests and that the Russian testing program actually began flight tests in 2008 (keep that timing in mind), but for all that, the Obama administration has declined to protest officially or to take meaningful action in response to this threat to the security of our allies and so to our own security.
We shouldn’t be surprised at this latest demonstration of Obama’s timidity on the world stage. This is the same President who surrendered to the Russians on the question of placing a missile defense capacity in Poland and the Czech Republic—a defense system designed specifically to intercept short- and medium-range missiles and wholly incapable of handling ICBMs. With the Russian medium-range missile flight testing having begun just a few months earlier, their vociferous objections to a missile defense system capable of defending, oh, say, Europe becomes much more understandable.
This is also the same president that has gutted DoD’s missile defense system R&D and deployment anywhere.
Now this. What did Obama really expect, though? He’s neither stupid, ignorant, nor naïve.