As Barack Obama enters the White House, he will inherit multiple problems that bedeviled President Bush during his years in office, including an Iran obstinately refusing to abandon its nuclear program and a Russia bent upon intimidating the United States into abandoning the planned European Missile Defense (EMD) program, analysts said.
The incoming president will have no breathing space, but instead will be confronted immediately with myriad pressing issues.
The American Enterprise Institute think tank forum included AEI faculty members Thomas Donnelly, Dan Blumenthal, Danielle Pletka, Leon Aron and Gary J. Schmidt.
These were some of their key points:
It would be an enormous mistake for the United States to abandon plans to build the European Missile Defense system to guard against missiles fired by Iran or other Middle Eastern nations.
If the United States were to abandon the project, including a radar in the Czech Republic and interceptors in ground silos in Poland, those governments might collapse, because they took the unpopular stance of backing the missile shield.
Also, if the United States abandons the missile shield, it will seem to the world that Russian leaders intimidated Obama into backing down from a major U.S. initiative.
The United States has achieved very little in attempting to pressure Iran to abandon its nuclear program, with thousands of centrifuges spinning day and night.
If Iran assembles its first nuclear weapon, other Middle Eastern nations will say they must counter that move, and they will develop their own atomic arms. Iran also is moving apace to develop ever-longer-range missiles.
The Arab-Israeli crisis will continue, likely complicating matters for Obama’s secretary of state-designate, Hillary Clinton.
China will continue moving toward acquiring major aircraft carrier potential.
While Obama said in taking office that the economy requires a stimulus to avert a deep, long recession and major job losses, defense spending would provide a perfect economic stimulus. Many defense programs such as the F-22 Raptor strike fighter and the C-17 transport aircraft already are in production. This is a highly educated workforce, with 800,000 jobs, as big as the auto sector. These programs are more than “shovel-ready.”
Industry exports amount to $32 billion in foreign military sales annually.
U.S. space assets must be protected from anti-satellite weapons wielded by enemies of the United States.
The Airborne Laser missile defense system is critical and shouldn’t be abandoned now, when it is only weeks away from major field tests. That laser technology is vital for the ABL itself, and for other systems.