Missile defense turns out to be a lot less controversial in Europe than here in the US. NATO will endorse the missile-defense system that Democrats, including Barack Obama, have denigrated since its first proposal in the Reagan administration. Its adoption by NATO bolsters George Bush’s position in Europe against Vladimir Putin, who has tried to split the Western coalition by extortion and negotiation:

NATO leaders meeting in Bucharest were set to endorse a planned U.S. missile shield for Europe on Thursday, a senior U.S. official told reporters.

The final summit statement would “recognize the substantive contribution to the protection of the allies” from the missile defense system to be deployed in the Czech Republic and Poland, the official told reporters.

That will put Obama in an uncomfortable position. He called missile defense systems “unproven” and promised to cut them along with a litany of other military reductions he offered in a speech two months ago. The video went viral weeks ago, but here it is one more time:

Now that NATO intends to rely on our missile-defense system, will Obama change his tune on the supposedly “unproven” system? Will he tell NATO to pound sand? Will he tell the combined heads of Western military organizations that his judgment supercedes theirs?Obama has little experience in military matters — and this just showed how inept and naive he is.

Update: Cuffy’s got more on missile defense here.