Raise Shields

We Llamas seem to have been picked up by a new political blog dump called Lucid Truth, so I suppose I'd better say something political.

NPR was full of the nooz of Obama signing a new missile treaty with Ivan this morning. In general, I've got no problem with the idea of reducing the nucular inventory a bit, especially when it means effectively cycling out some of the older junk. (I gather that the treaty language is more an accounting game for show than anything else.)

But what gives me the chills is any talk of linking stockpile reductions to putting the kybosh on missile defense. This absolutely must not happen, as ABM development is just too critical in a world full of potentially pot-shotting rogue states. (Yeah, I'm looking at you, Iran and North Korea.) Sure, an American missile defense shield gives Ivan the willies (isn't it funny that the Russians are the only ones who have always believed that we'd actually build one that works?), but in the face of this threat, I'd say screw him. If the NY Times is correct, Obama may actually see sense on this matter, too:

Even as the two presidents hailed the treaty, however, they found no common ground on American plans to build an anti-missile shield in Europe to counter any Iranian threat. Mr. Obama refused Russian demands to include limits on missile defense in the treaty, nearly scuttling the agreement. In the days leading up to the ceremony here, Russian officials alternately claimed the agreement would bind the program or complained that it did not and threatened to withdraw if it went forward.

If that report is accurate, then I will actually say good for you, Mr. President. But stay strong and don't cave down the road. If the report is wrong and the White House is actually doing some kind of backroom deal with Ivan, then I hope the Senate is sane enough to kill the thing.