The U.S. is but one of almost 200 national entities in the world, countries that range in size from Monaco to China.  Those other countries vary not only in size but also in their level of threat to our national security, from, well, Monaco to China.  The most important duty the Constitution assigns to our federal government is protecting us from the threats, large and small, that other countries pose for us.

Friday, our new President scrapped our Eastern European missile defense system.  This program was carefully negotiated by George W. Bush with our Eastern European allies for deployment there as a defense against both Russian and Iranian ballistic missiles potentially carrying nuclear warheads.  The Russians, of course, are mildly ecstatic about what they view as a huge diplomatic coup, and there was even a report yesterday that they've now scrapped their pending deployment of tactical missiles near the Polish border.  If they're really doing that, good for them - and good for us, too - but the Russians aren't the only threat the missile defense system was supposed to protect us against.

The Iranians have so far been silent, but the system was designed to prevent them from lobbing nuclear warheads at us, too.  Iran is led by lunatic mullahs and their tools, like Mahmoud Ahmendinijad, who have promised, due to their extreme anti-Semitism, the destruction of our ally Israel, the Middle East's only democracy.  Unless Mr. Obama plans to abandon Israel to the Muslim wolves there, we're going to be a target of these madmen.  In fact, even if we did throw the Israelis to the wolves, these people hate us so much that Israel would still be smoking ruins when they found some other excuse to target us.

One of the criticisms leveled at the newly-scrapped system, which was supposed to counter an attack from Iranian intercontinental ballistic missiles, was that it was too far away from Iran to defend against short-range missiles.  Short-range missiles are now expected to be a threat long before the Iranians develop ICBMs, and they can be better combated by a simpler system, according to the Obama Administration.  The last time I checked, Iran, or any other Asian country, for that matter, can't reach the U.S. with short-range missiles, but even if we accept that all we need for now is a simple system, why not prepare for the future, when the Iranian lunatics have developed the long-range systems that there's no doubt that they want?

There's also no guarantee that Russia, historically an imperialist nation of the first rank, won't want to use short range missiles against our European allies someday, so why not leave in place a single, comprehensive missile defense system that counters any and all threats?  Instead, we've once again deserted defenseless countries that have put their faith in our reliability as an ally.  Time and again since the Second World War we've promised our allies the moon, only to run out when a chicken administration decided it didn't have the stomach to stand and fight.  The most recent occurrence of this phenomenon was in 1979, when the ill-fated Carter Administration sold out the Shah of Iran, forcing him into exile and turning the country over to the same lunatic mullahs we now need a missile defense system for.

It's not just that we're running out on our allies, though.  We're letting other countries dictate our foreign policy to us.  Here's a news flash, people.  Other countries don't have our best interests at heart - they have their best interests in mind when they formulate policy, even if they're formulating our policy.  Even our closest allies - the ones in Western Europe - look out for their own interests first.  When most of these countries balked at invading Iraq, and some of them backed out after being threatened by terrorists, they weren't thinking about our well-being.  The were looking out for themselves. 

These countries are being short sighted, of course, because they're acting like they want the terrorist crocodile to eat them last, but as long as the U.S. and Israel are gobbled up first, they don't seem to care.  We had the power to deal with Iraq, just as we now have the power to deal with Iranian and Russian missiles and terrorist threats.  Even if we didn't believe there was a strong probability of being attacked, why, when we have the power to do something about it, would we take a chance on the goodwill of other nations?  Even if there's a 90% chance these other nations mean us no harm, that's still a 10% chance that they do.  Let's invest a little of our power to change things for the better and improve our odds of success.

Let's therefore use our military to stabilize the Middle East and build and deploy whatever defensive systems we need to help ensure the safety of our citizens.  Let's not rely on promises from imperialistic powers and nations run by homicidal/suicidal maniacs.  Our safety depends not only on our strength but on our willingness to use it.