Showing posts with label missile defense. Show all posts
Showing posts with label missile defense. Show all posts
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.
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
Another ridiculous editorial in the Washington Post today, unsigned and likely to be from the unserious Fred Hiatt once again. The topic this time is the missile defense shield. While coming to the correct position that it should not be deployed now, it gets there in a bad way.
The Post has no idea why Russia would be concerned about us deploying missile defense to Poland and the Czech Republic other than posturing.
Vladimir Putin has skillfully and cynically used the administration's plans to deploy 10 interceptors in Poland and a radar in the Czech Republic as a way to stir up trouble in NATO and to justify new steps in Russia's increasingly belligerent foreign policy -- such as moving toward the renunciation of a treaty limiting conventional military forces in Europe. The administration is right to call Mr. Putin's broadsides "ludicrous."
Let me explain this in a way that even Fred Hiatt could grasp. Our government has just done a pre-emptive war in Iraq. We have a recent track record of invading countries without an imminent threat. Pretend we are in a simpler time of the middle ages. Your enemy comes up to you wearing a suit of armor. You accuse him of wanting to attack you. He replies that the armor is just defensive in nature. It blocks incoming blows. How dare you suggest that this is an offensive weapon.
The answer of course is that defensive weaponry is used for a good offense as well. Imagine again for example that we had an out of control administration with no respect for the rule of law, or international opinion. It's tough to imagine such a thing, but go along with me. If this fictitious administration wanted to bomb somebody unilaterally without provocation, and this country had missiles of their own. Wouldn't a great way to get away with it, with lesser blowback damage be to have a shield against their retaliatory missiles?
It's like some people are third graders. Russia has a history of being invaded. It's not likely to happen now, but it develops a strong sense of paranoia. Putting a system in place in eastern europe, the area Russia annexed to buffer itself from invasion, is going to upset Russia. Period. It would upset us.
What if Venezuela set up a bunch of anti aircraft guns in Mexico along the US border. Would we be concerned at all? They could say it was a defensive measure against the US flying down south to topple their government. Any offensive use of this weaponry would obviously just be posturing.
I am not suggesting that a missile shield in the distant future, that actually works, and has strict controls, and treaties in place, that it be used only in defense and not as a shield during attacks, can not be tried. I am suggesting that Fred Hiatt's grasp of reality, geopolitics, and common sense is as lacking as the Bush administration, and this is a good example of why he is still cheerleading their doomed foreign policy.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
The Czech Republic said on Tuesday it would not be intimidated by Russia over plans to site parts of a U.S. missile defense system on its territory and said attempts at "blackmail" by Moscow would backfire.
Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg said threats by Russian officials over the plans, which would involve placing a radar system on Czech land and a missile battery in Poland, would only make Czechs more determined to defend themselves.
Russia's strategic forces commander, General Nikolai Solovtsov, said on Monday that Russia would be capable of firing missiles at the Czech Republic and Poland if the ex-communist states agreed to host the U.S. defense system.
Oh, what to say. This missile defense system is a hare brained wet dream of the idiots left from the Reagan Administration, that doesn't even work properly unless the tests are rigged.
So, not only do we have a stupid program that is not close to working, but we are provoking the Russians by placing parts in former East Block countries. One of the many reasons for Soviet expansion into these states was a blowback from fears of another power like Germany marching east to Russia, and they kind of wanted a buffer zone, in addition to local hegemony, and the typical lust for power.
How in the hell are the Russians to respond to this? It is extremely provocative on our (Crazy McBush's) part, and Russia will feel forced to respond by doing something aggressive to prove that they aren't wallflowers.
It is shocking that Bush's long deep glance into Vladimir's soul didn't help him understand that acting like a cowboy jackass might actually offend the Russian government into doing something other than taking bribes from the mob and killing journalists who notice Putin had a bad hair day.
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