Gettin' It Done - 33

Defend what's really worth defending - and defend it against threats that are real.

It's easy to see Iran and N Korea as nothing more than The Paranoid Insular Regimes du Jour.  It's also pretty easy to be dismissive, and to see Kim and Ahmadinejad as petty tyrants we could squash like gnats.  But guess what - it ain't about Iran or N Korea.  It's about countering China's ability to use Iran and N Korea as surrogates to project power.

33. Trimmed and Reoriented Missile Defense: Cut the Reagan-era “Star Wars” missile defense budget, saving $1.4 billion in 2010, and canceled plans to station antiballistic missile systems in Poland and the Czech Republic in favor of sea-based defense plan focused on Iran and North Korea.

I don't claim any special knowledge or expertise about US Foreign Policy, but I'm not about to vote for Romney when he tries to tell me our greatest "enemy" in the world is Russia.  Even at the height of the Cold War, we were kinda "back-channel allies" with the Soviets where China was concerned because they were always so scared Mao would try to pull something on their eastern flank - the Ruskies came in pretty handy helping us keep the Chinese bottled up.  Pretty smart play - using one major component of The Red Menace to contain the power and influence of The Red Menace.  So let's not go out of our way to piss off the Russians when it's more than a little likely we're gonna need 'em.