Meghan Hughes (202) 224-5972 or Kevin Bishop (864) 250-1417

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) today made this statement on news the Obama Administration is pulling back from a missile defense system in Eastern Europe.

 

“President Obama’s decision to abandon the missile defense shield is a strategic mistake.  The missile defense program is directed at dealing with a rogue missile attack from the Middle East, particularly Iran.  A rogue missile attack into Europe puts American service men and women, and our European allies, at risk.  Scrapping this program makes it easier for extremists in the Middle East to hold portions of the world hostage.

 

“President Obama’s decision also emboldens Russia and pulls the rug out from under our Polish and Czech Republic allies.  They may try to call this hitting the reset button on our relationship with Russia.  It looks more like retreat.  The Russians will take our actions not as a sign of goodwill, but weakness. 

 

“I can only imagine how difficult this decision must be on our Polish and Czech Republic allies.  No matter how much the President and others try to sell this, Moscow sees our decision as a cave-in and our eastern European allies see it as a sell-out.

 

“If the Administration was so confident this was the right decision to make, it surely seems strange that these decisions were carried out in the middle of the night.”

 

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