A brand new false dichotomy set up by the bush neocons acting as surrogates…

posted by Bill Arnett @ 12:52 PM Permalink

…is that President Elect Obama must immediately go to work against Russia and for the 'missile shield' bushco so desperately wants to install along Russian borders and in countries formerly ruled by the now-defunct Soviet Union.

What a crock of crap! As explained by the LAT:

Russia didn't waste any time in putting President-elect Barack Obama on notice. A day after the election, President Dmitry Medvedev renewed Russian warnings that he would base short-range Iskander missiles in Kaliningrad, on the border of Poland, if the U.S. proceeds with plans to base a missile defense system in Europe, with the hardware in Poland and the Czech Republic. And this week, the Kremlin rejected new proposals put forward by the Bush administration to assuage concerns that the system could be used to neutralize Russia's nuclear arsenal.

U.S. missile defense hawks responded that Medvedev's threat, coming on the heels of Russia's war with U.S.-allied Georgia, makes it essential for Obama to prove his mettle against an emboldened Kremlin and press ahead with a system to protect Europe and the United States against long-range missiles from Iran.

R-i-i-i-g-g-h-h-t! Our economy is falling apart, unemployment approaching near records, Obama's not even inaugurated yet, and the chickenhawks and war-, fear-mongers are already trying to have Obama enter into a position of bellicosity with the Russians over a missile shield that does not now work or is likely to work in my lifetime. And, once again, the neocons falsely make it seem that Russia instigated the attack on "U.S,-backed Georgia." Even the supposed reason for pursuing this folly is equine excrement of the first degree:

Obama should not react to the rhetoric from either quarter, but he should reconsider missile defense on its merits -- or lack thereof. The president-elect rightly is skeptical of the defense shield, given that it doesn't yet work and it's intended to defend against nuclear-tipped Iranian missiles that don't yet exist. Although Iran has tested long-range missiles that could reach southern Europe, some security analysts believe the country is merely saber-rattling, because an Iranian attack on Europe, or even Israel, would be met with such force as to be suicidal. Meanwhile, the proposed missile shield has driven an unnecessary wedge between Moscow and much of the rest of Europe.

Ah, yes, grasshopper, the doctrine of mutually assured destruction of any country attacking another nation with nuclear weapons by a corresponding retaliation with nuclear weapons from the nation attacked.

Why don't we willing give nuclear weapons to every country with strict warnings of M.A.D implementation if they do not secure those weapons? Couldn't this be the beginning of the end of war? If everyone has nukes then no dares use them without fear of immediate destruction and/or the extinction of that country's race?

Even before Medvedev's comments, there was no guarantee Obama would continue on the missile shield track. Congress has yet to fund it, with cost estimates ranging from $4 billion to $10 billion a year for five years, and Obama may not have the money in the midst of an economic crisis.

One of Obama's senior defense advisors is former Georgia Sen. Sam Nunn, who has criticized the Bush administration for increasing tensions with Russia by backing NATO membership for Poland and Ukraine, on Russia's border. This, and the defense shield, have fueled Russia's fears that the United States means to surround it, spy on it and eliminate its nuclear deterrent. Nunn, among other Democrats, wants Washington and Moscow to negotiate nuclear disarmament, not waste time on a tiff over a missile shield.

Obama must engage Russia on many fronts, not fan its fears. For example, he needs Russia to fully support economic sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program. And because Russia doesn't want a nuclear-armed Iran any more than the United States and Europe do, there's a good chance the Kremlin can be brought on board -- perhaps even in exchange for scrapping the missile shield program.

But this matter definitely does not call for deliberate taunting and bellicosity on the part of Obama OR the Russians.

It's eventually going to dawn on the countries where we wish to put these missile shields everyone knows don't work that they are setting themselves up for attack by the Russians, claiming self-defense, and that the U.S., already bogged down in two wars that have decimated the formerly most powerful military in the world, the American Armed Forces, that there is no way we could defend them, much engage Russia and probably China to boot.

Labels: bush war doctrine, communism, diplomacy, disinformation, neocons, propaganda