To hear generals and political leaders in Washington and Moscow talk, you would imagine that the proposed U.S. ballistic missile defense base in Poland was already built or about to become operational: None of them on either side bothers to acknowledge that it will almost certainly never be built…
If the bases are not going to be built all these arguments are just shadow-boxing, like a medieval theological debate about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. So why are they taking place at all?
The first answer is that, although the Bush administration has only a year left in office and has lost control of both houses of Congress to an increasingly critical and assertive Democratic opposition, it has become so enamored of building the Polish BMD base that its policymakers are unable to admit to themselves that they no longer have any real hope of doing so…
With presidential elections due in Russia next May, Putin appears to be preparing to retain power as prime minister and parliamentary leader of the dominant United Russia Party in the State Duma, while staying within the letter of the law of the 1996 Yeltsin Constitution. Therefore, having strong anti-Western cards to play with the Russian public is more useful for him than ever.
So even if the BMD base in Poland will never be built, the fact that an increasingly isolated U.S. government is still determined to build it plays into Putin’s hands in portraying Washington as a threat to Russia.
Watch the puppetmasters continue their Punch and Judy dementia and wonder if the risk of war through accident or ego is not part of the script?
“an increasingly critical and assertive Democratic opposition”
What planet did that insane comment come from???
>>What planet did that insane comment come from???
Just because you don’t read about it in World News Daily or hear about it on the Anal Cyst or Loofah Pad shows doesn’t mean it’s not happening.
That look on Putin’s face says it all. It’s the whole world looking at who Americans put in charge. Phew.
Hey liberals have been saying for decades that Star Wars can’t possibly work. So why are the Russians upset if it gets implemented in Poland? Didn’t Putin get the memo? The Americans are spending billions on useless weapons!
So maybe they need a missile defense system, maybe they don’t. Why the hell should we pay for it?
Can anyone remember the Cuban Missile Crisis? It had to do with missiles being mere minutes away from US targets. Too close to evaluate the decision system short of all out Nuclear, world-wide, indiscriminate response, should anything be detected as lifting off.
The Russians–and even Putin’s critics–all recognize that the notion of balancing nuclear war on a four-minute window of decision is MADness in the extreme. What enemy do we have in that region that will require us to obliterate in the next 1/12th of an hour?
I think we, the U.S., should rethink this one with completely different brains.
haha, that is a funny picture. Caption above Putin head says ” and all I needed to do was grab cheerleader ass and drink corn wine.”
Peter, these aren’t offensive missiles so much as defensive missiles that shoot down other missiles.
Using these would increase the decision window.