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Obama's Missile Defense Miscalculation
Walberg, Rebecca
Tuesday, 05 January 2010
President Obama’s decision in September 2009 to cancel a joint missile defense shield for Poland and the Czech Republic represented a military, diplomatic and cultural miscalculation. Coming on the heels of half a year of military and domestic policy missteps, the move marked the extension of Obama’s Potemkin politics – grand, public gestures concealing dysfunctional or poorly thought-through policies – into the realm of international security.
George Gilder persuasively argues in his latest book The Israel Test that the central issue of our time is not any clash of civilizations or dispute over environmentalism, but a more fundamental moral divide. He explains: "On one side, marshaled at the United Nations and in universities around the globe, are those who see capitalism as a zero-sum game in which success comes at the expense of the poor and the environment: Every gain for one party comes at the cost of another. On the other side are those who see the genius and the good fortune of some as a source of wealth and opportunity for all."
President Obama’s decision in September 2009 to cancel a joint missile defense shield for Poland and the Czech Republic represented a military, diplomatic and cultural miscalculation. Coming on the heels of half a year of military and domestic policy missteps, the move marked the extension of Obama’s Potemkin politics – grand, public gestures concealing dysfunctional or poorly thought-through policies – into the realm of international security. 
George Gilder persuasively argues in his latest book The Israel Test that the central issue of our time is not any clash of civilizations or dispute over environmentalism, but a more fundamental moral divide. He explains: "On one side, marshaled at the United Nations and in universities around the globe, are those who see capitalism as a zero-sum game in which success comes at the expense of the poor and the environment: Every gain for one party comes at the cost of another. On the other side are those who see the genius and the good fortune of some as a source of wealth and opportunity for all."