Sweet: Palin hits Obama on missile-defense cuts

In one fell swoop, a well-placed criticism of Obama and a juicy cut of red meat for the base. Nicely played.

“I am deeply concerned with North Korea’s development and testing program which has clear potential of impacting Alaska, a sovereign state of the United States, with a potentially nuclear armed warhead,” Governor Palin said. “I can’t emphasize enough how important it is that we continue to develop and perfect the global missile defense network. Alaska’s strategic location and the system in place here have proven invaluable in defending the nation.”

Governor Palin stressed the importance of Fort Greely and the need for continued funding for the Missile Defense Agency. The governor is firmly against U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates’ proposed $1.4 billion reduction of the Missile Defense Agency. Greely’s isolated location in Alaska as well as its strategic location in the Pacific allows for maximum security and development of the country’s only ground-based missile defense complex.

“Our early opposition to reduced funding for the Missile Defense Agency is proving to be well-founded during this turbulent time,” Governor Palin said. “I continue to support the development and implementation of a defensive missile shield based in Alaska. We are strategically placed to defend the critical assets of the United States and our allies in the Pacific Theater.”

Missile defense isn’t even the worst cut, in my very poorly informed opinion. Scaling back the F-22 — a key to total air superiority — is. See Danger Room for details on that; the Pentagon wanted almost 200 fighters more but Gates decided that our new emphasis on wars of counterinsurgency means that 180+ are enough. He also decided to scale down Future Combat Systems, which is bad news for the warporn addict within but acceptable to bean counters. It sounded like a boondoggle.