Friday, May 18, 2007
A U.S. plan to build a missile defense shield in eastern Europe is part of a scheme to encircle Russia, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday.
Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said this week they had failed to bridge their long-standing differences over U.S. plans to put 10 missile interceptors in Poland and radar in the Czech Republic as part of a system to shield Europe from missile attack.
"These Czech and Polish locations perfectly fit into the overall global design of the American missile defense which is surrounding the perimeters of the Russian borders," Lavrov told the BBC World television channel, speaking in English.
To be honest, if I were Russian, it would look that way to me. We are planning on setting up the system in Poland and the Czech Republic to the west of Russia, and the other components will be based in California and crucially in Alaska, just to the east of Siberia.
I am no fan of Putin's Russia. But, their security concerns are legitimate. Every "defensive" weapon can be used offensively. People attacked in the middle ages wearing shields you know. The concept is the same. Paranoid or not, the Russians believe the missile defense is an attempt to do a first strike against them, while repelling Russian counter attack missiles nullifying the mutually assured destruction doctrine.
The thing doesn't apparently work yet after all the billions we spent. But if we did get it to work, it just wouldn't work to "defend" the US, but also be used to attack our adversaries without them being able to inflict reciprocal damage.
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