We've just weakened America's standing in a critical region of the world and let our allies down

It would appear that the White House

has decided against building a missile shield to protect Poland and the Czech Republic

writes Investor's Business Daily, concerning the Jimmy Carter admi — sorry, concerning the Barack Obama administration's latest brilliant move.

The reason? Russian opposition.

Now, perhaps it becomes more clear why the Apologizer-in-Chief has sent no current U.S. officials to Warsaw for the ceremony of the start of World War II…

Now, if we want to build a defense system for friends in Europe, we'll have to place it in the Balkans, Israel or somewhere else. That is, if Russia approves.

This is a stark reversal of past policy and reneges on promises made by the current administration. Worse, it shows weakness. We got into a staredown with the Russian bear and we blinked.

…As for promises to our allies, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton just this month said the U.S. would offer our allies a "defense umbrella" against threats from a possible Iranian nuclear weapon.

Now, all that high-sounding defense rhetoric is out the window.

…We've just weakened America's standing in a critical region of the world — Eastern Europe — and let our allies down. We've made them vulnerable, in ways that only we could, to Russia's growing military menace. Polish and Czech friends who had relied on us to stand firm and keep our word no doubt feel betrayed.

This diminishes our global influence. What smallish country will now take our word at face value when we promise to protect them?

In a parallel editorial, Investor's Business Daily heads halfway around the world to make the same stunning assessment of Jimmy Car— sorry, of Barack Obama's policies:

the U.S. acts as if good relations with Chavez is a high priority, but ties with allies Honduras and Colombia aren't.

What does all this tell us about the three characteristics of the Obama Doctrine?