Not surprisingly, central and eastern European allies don’t care about the missile defense non-controversy:

But Stefan Niesiolowski, a lawmaker from the governing Civic Platform party and chairman of the defense committee in the lower house of Parliament, said of Mr. Obama’s overheard comment: “This is not surprising or new, and there’s no outrage in Poland.”

He said the comment has caused some to think the missile-defense agreement could change. But, he said, “There’s no military threat, and we haven’t had a situation as secure as this in 300 years. The level of U.S. military engagement in Poland therefore isn’t of top importance. [bold mine-DL]”

If the European allies working with the U.S. on current missile defense plans are unconcerned by this, why should it worry anyone in the U.S.? Does it make any sense for Americans to care more about European missile defense than the Europeans it is supposed to benefit? I know there is a hawkish impulse to define U.S. interests in a region according to the local nationalists’ understanding of allied security, but pretending to worry more about eastern Europe than the governments of eastern Europe do is just ridiculous.