by U.S. Missile Defense System
Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev on the placement of a US Missile Defense system in Eastern Europe: “This is a system that is being created against Russia”
The Bush Administration has been pushing for the installation of a missile defense system close to Russia's borders with radars in the Czech Republic and ten ground based interceptor missiles in Poland. President Putin has offered President Bush the use of bases in Azerbaijan and southern Russia that could host a joint missile defense system to counter the threat of Iranian missiles targeted at Europe. Yet the Bush Administration continues to insist on placing ground based interceptors 2,000 miles away from Iran. The system is said to target the potential threat from the Islamic Republic regime in Iran, however, the actions of the White House don’t seem to match these words. Mikhail Gorbachev, 76, who is admired in the West for hastening the end Communism in the Soviet Union and its satellites said: “Milos Zeman, the former Czech prime minister, said, 'What kind of Iran threat do you see? This is a system that is being created against Russia,' I don't think Zeman is alone in seeing this. We see this as well as he sees it."
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov recently said that Washington continues to insist that its missile shield plans in Europe were linked to the potential missile threat from Iran. "They still say that," he said according to Russia's RIA Novosti news agency. "But there must be some lack of coordination here because the Czech premier has repeatedly said that they need components of the U.S. missile defense on their territory to protect themselves from Russia." Lavrov added that Polish leaders had previously made identical statements. He said that the written U.S. proposal on missile defense constituted a material rollback from verbal agreements that had been reached in Moscow in October. "We have top class experts, military planners, who can see how it will affect our security and who will have to take retaliatory measures," the Russian Foreign Minister declared upon his return from a U.S.-hosted Middle East peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland.
A map of the worldwide system from the U.S. Missile Defense Agency
“There is nothing constructive in the U.S. written proposals on missile defense,” said the Chief of the Russian General Staff, Army General Yury Baluevsky. “The dog is barking but the caravan is moving. It appears we haven’t been understood in the end. What definite proposals are you talking about if we have got from the U.S. written proposals on missile defense that the United States was arranging, is arranging and will be arranging a positional missile defense area in Europe, while Russia is taken as a free supplement to it,” said the general. Baluevsky didn’t elaborate about the exact content of the American proposals but said there was nothing new in them.
With most Americans and the U.S. media focused on the state of the economy and the upcoming 2008 presidential elections, the American proposal on missile defense has not been a big news story in America. However, Washington's dismissive response to an unprecedented gesture offering cooperation from Moscow has been big news in Russia. Politicians and ordinary Russians alike are not mad at the United States, but saddened by the fact that American government would rather do business and make friends with Chinese Communists, authoritarian leaders in Kazahkstan, and Arab oil sheiks who practice strict Islamic law, than to try and find common ground with the new capitalist Russia. The rhetoric of the Russian politicians and feelings of common Russians suggest that there will be more cooling in the relationships between our respective nations, especially during the upcoming election year in Russia.
Mr. Gorbachev, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for ending the Cold War in 1990, criticized the high level of military spending by the United States. "Does America intend to fight the rest of the world, does America need to build a new empire?" asked Gorbachev at the close of a meeting of the World Political Forum, a group he founded in 2003 that includes many former world leaders and high-ranking retired officials.
Isn’t it ironic that a man who worked with President Ronald Reagan to end the Cold War and dismantle the Evil Empire is trying to warn America about the dangerous path the United States may be taking today? It was, after all, no less a foe of Soviet Communism than Reagan who first proposed sharing American missile defense technology with Russia. Perhaps those who claim the mantle of being Reagan's ideological heirs would do well to consider this fact.
Click on the links below to read more Russia Blog posts about this issue:
One Cold War Was Enough: Russia Needs Our Help, Not Our Condemnation
MIT Professor: U.S. Should Take Up Russia's Offer to Build Joint Missile Defense System
Ballistic Insults: The War of Words Over Missile Defense
Comments
I'm sorry, but I don't quite see how a missile defense system that would keep Russian missiles from being used against the US poses a threat to anyone.
Was there some intent to launch missiles against us that is being thwarted ?
Posted by: Gene Finneran | November 29, 2007 1:44 PM
Hi just found your blog, I teach English at the St Petersburg State University, and some of your material has been helpful in our discussion groups.
Posted by: Frank | December 1, 2007 7:05 AM
How is it not "friend after friend"? And the strategic studies institute wonders what it needs to be thinking about? (wtf) Why don't they get it? A natural and historic ally is something to cherish, not to threaten. Well, when you have neaderthals running things guess what you get?
Lois White Buffalo
Posted by: Lois DuPey | December 1, 2007 1:57 PM
>I'm sorry, but I don't
>quite see how a
>missile defense system
>that would keep
>Russian missiles from
>being used against the
>US poses a threat to
>anyone.
Do you remember the Cuban Missile Crisis, when Russia placed missiles near the US in response to the US placing missiles in Turkey against Russia?
How would you feel if Russia placed a missile defense system in Cuba (again) or Mexico that would keep American missiles from being used against Russia?
You might not care but American leaders definitely would, as was seen with the Cuban crisis.
The core problem with the missile systems that are to be placed in Poland and the Czech Republic is that this could be the start of more comprehensive systems being installed in the future, with the goal being to drastically reduce Russia's capability to counter launch missiles in response to an American attack.
It's no news that American leaders are trying to find a way out of the Mutually Assured Destruction doctrine in order to be able to launch a nuclear attack against Russia, the number one challenge to US geo-strategic goals, and WIN. Without being destroyed in return.
The reason the US didn't go all the way to Baghdad in the first Gulf War was because of uncertainty as to what the Soviets would do. Even GHW Bush and Wolfowitz admitted this. Of course, the Russians had bigger problems at the time as the USSR was falling apart.
It is obvious to anyone with reasonably accurate knowledge of geo-politics that the US is trying to prevent Russia from becoming the challenge to American ambitions that it used to be in Soviet days. Wesley Clarke mentions in his memoir that Wolfowitz explicitly admitted to him after the first Gulf War and after the USSR fell apart that the US had a unique opportunity to accomplish its geo-strategic goals without being contained by Russia as it had been since WWII. Yes, Russia contained the US, not the other way around. And now the US has encircled Russia in its near abroad, and you wonder why the Russians are agitated?
Posted by: Chris | December 2, 2007 1:37 AM
I am sorry to be blunt, but this missle defense system has nothing to do with Iran, or N. Korea, or Russia. It has everything to do with building ties to Eastern Europe (those nations Russia now wants to invade again) and defending America against ANY Ballistic Missle Threat. The Russians have elected the Monster that is Putin, and in doing so they have sold freedom for percieved economic growth and international 'respect'. Here's a bit of reality for you: The developed world thinks Russia is a joke. The Russian people are weak and have no dedication to liberty. When the oil runs out, or Europe dosent need the gas anymore, Russia will again plunge into obscurity. If Russia were a stock, it would be untouchable, being so drastically overvalued.
Posted by: Zach | December 2, 2007 3:19 PM
Any truly objective person would be deeply concerned by the placement of anti-missile batteries at Russia's doorstep. Just imagine the reaction of Bush if the Russian's proposed placement of a similiar system in Mexico or Canada. It would be viewed as a declaration of war. Further, this irresponsible action will upset the balance of power between the two countries, and could begin another arms race that will devour billions and billions of dollars. To be honest, Putin has done a remarkable job in bringing about security and prosperity to Russia. Russian's are a proud people with a noble past, the country is endowed with rich natural resources, and under the brilliant leadership of Putin Russia is regaining its status as a world superpower, which would be a good thing for all the world. A strong Russia would provide a counter-balance to the US.
Posted by: Frank F. Kling | December 3, 2007 1:36 AM
Everyone will always have something to b**** about the U.S. so it doesn't really matter what they do for good or bad.
Posted by: Limafan | December 3, 2007 8:48 PM
Apart from the explanation already brought up, one important fact is that the US will install an extremely sophisticated radar (already build and being floated from Alaska to Europe) that will be able to see deeply and with great detail into Russia.
Why is this a problem? Early warning. The US has space based early warning that depends on infra-red to detect missile launches. The problem is that this does not provide useful enough information quickly enough if the US has anti missile systems in the area (i.e. missile armed stealth drones etc.).
The radar in the Czech Republic would give the US/NATO very detailed information very quickly, in effect buying themselves time. As previously stated, this undermines the whole idea of Mutually Assured Destruction. Once one side starts to believe that it can win a nuclear war, and the US has renounced its non-first use of nuclear weapons publicly, then their use will be come more likely.
It's not like there will be a national referendum on nuclear first strike or anything
And, going back to another point raised above, once they're in, they can be expanded/upgraded/realigned or generally pointed east, rather than south-east.
You could ask, is a few dozens of millions of dead Americans worth starting and 'winning' a nuclear war?
Posted by: Aleks | December 5, 2007 9:48 AM
Yuri Mamchur is a fool. He's saddned that the U.S. doesn't "try and find common ground with the new capitalist Russia." Mamchur just doesn't get it. The United States and its imperialist junior partners in crime have no desire to see Russia develop into an economic competitor, but rather salvate at the prospect of Russia becoming a market for their products, a source of cheap labor, and a cornucopia of minerals and oil. The goal is to surround Russia and attack it - using the blood of European conscripted youth to carry this out. The U.S. supplies the weapons, and Europe supplies the cannon fodder.
Posted by: Michael Gordon | April 3, 2008 9:09 PM
When are you Russian fools going to get it through your Stalinized heads that the capitalists are not your friends? You gave all that forty-million Russians gave their lives for, both to create (1917) and defend (1939), back to the capitalist bosses. And you think that you can now be partners? Read Lenin's "Imperialism, The Highest Stage of Capitalism." The imperialists are not out to become Russia's partner, but rather to conquer its three-hundred-million-strong market and sources of cheap labor, not to even mention its vast resources. Russian youths are going to see another world war because traitors, such as Gorbachev, sold you down the river to the imperialists. Now your children will pay for these crimes with their blood, as the imperialists prepare to invade your "Mother Russia."
Posted by: Michael Gordon | April 3, 2008 9:17 PM
It is highly probable that a new cold war is starting. The Russians will use Cuba again and will strengthen its strategic missile arsenal. That is understandable.
Posted by: Christoph Rohde | August 20, 2008 7:16 AM