Star Wars, Episode 28-The Russians Strike Back

posted by Bill Arnett @ 12:26 PM Permalink

A few days ago I posted Star Wars, Episode 27-Can't Get it Up discussing the fact that although this program of a "missile defense shield" doesn't work, never has worked, probably never will work, but, that by virtue of its intended purpose and the fact that America is selling and installing this chimera in Europe, other countries in the region were bound to interpret this as a virtual hostile attack; a defense that presumably would be used to prevent effective retaliation in the event Russia or China were attacked by America.

Sure enough, from AFP News via Raw Story comes this:

Russia's bomber force would have no trouble destroying planned US missile defense sites in Europe, its head said Monday as the country's security council warned of new policies to counter NATO.…"Since the components of the anti-missile defence system are weakly protected, all types of our aircraft are capable of using electronic countermeasures against them and physically destroying them," Interfax news agency quoted Lieutenant General Igor Khvorov as saying.…The Kremlin has fiercely protested US plans to install an anti-missile system in Poland and the Czech Republic. Washington insists it would not be aimed at Russia but designed to counter attacks from countries such as Iran and North Korea.

This should have been an anticipated consequence to installing this bogus missile defense system in Europe.

The Russians are not stupid and it is beyond facetious and specious to allege that this system is being placed to prevent missile attacks by Iran and North Korea. Neither country has the current ability to launch missiles carrying nonexistent nuclear warheads at Europe, nor are they likely to be able to do so in the immediate future. Nor has either of these countries shown any interest in attacking any other country.

Communist China has greatly increased its military budget also, perhaps not because of the phony missile defense syatem, but certainly in reaction to selling advanced weaponry to Taiwan, and with an eye toward the fact that, …"Armed forces are being used above all as a principal instrument for pursuing the economic and political interests of countries". Geez, I wonder to which country they refer?

From the article:

"The analysis of the international situation shows that recourse to military force is increasingly the policy of leading world states," the council said in an announcement that the new doctrine was in preparation.…"The military policy of the principal countries devotes more and more energy to the modernisation of the armed forces," including updating their weapons technology and strategies, it said.…"Military alliances are strengthening, and especially NATO," the Russian security council claimed.…"Armed forces are being used above all as a principal instrument for pursuing the economic and political interests of countries" in the West, it said.…February 22 Putin warned, "We are encountering a dangerous disdain for international law, ambitions to use military force to achieve personal interests," in what appeared to be a veiled reference to the United States.…His comments came less than two weeks after he made a full-frontal assault on US foreign policy in a speech in Munich, saying the United States had "overstepped its borders in all spheres."

The predicates of another Cold War are now well-established, and the recklessness of restarting the arms race and nuclear proliferation bears the fingerprints of the bush maladministration.

We sell defensive weapons systems that don't work to countries that don't need them and wonder why other countries might view that as a hostile act committed by a country with, "…a dangerous disdain for international law, ambitions to use military force to achieve personal interests," and a country which has, "…overstepped its borders in all spheres."

How much longer can the world be expected to tolerate such conduct? More than half the world views America as the single greatest threat to world peace, and with bush in charge, they are right.