When former President Ronald Reagan refused to bargain away an untested missile defense system, he forced the Soviet Union to give up plans of nuclear hegemony and helped destroy the international Soviet threat. But now that the United States actually has produced remarkably successful missile-defense technology, President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are signaling they might bargain some of it away in return for vague pledges of Russian help in blocking Iran’s nuclear ambitions. If the new administration’s stance appears precisely backwards, that’s because it is.

Specifically, it was Friday the 13th of February that Hillary Clinton “signaled a willingness” to “slow plans for a missile defense shield in eastern Europe,” according to Reuters.  Clinton further said that the United States has “technical” issues regarding the shield, echoing Obama’s campaign comments last year that he would sharply reduce funding for “unproven” missile defense technology. Reuters also reported that the White House plans a $2 billion (20 percent) cut in missile defense development funding. Obama and Clinton must not be paying attention. Two days before Clinton’s “signal,” the Heritage Foundation premiered a new documentary called “33 Minutes” that highlights both the dire need for missile defense and the impressive success of the system’s tests so far.