Poland's president agrees with our plan to station missile defenses in his country:
President Bush signaled Friday the United States will press ahead with a missile defense shield in Eastern Europe despite Russia's heated objections. Poland's president expressed support for installing interceptor rockets in his country.
The plan calls for:
The U.S. system calls for a radar screen in the Czech Republic to watch for missile threats, and 10 interceptor rockets in Poland to shoot down any missiles. Both Bush and Kaczynski said the system would not threaten Russia. The Kremlin argues that the system would undermine its nuclear deterrent.
Despite Putin's phony complaints that such defenses would harm Russia, his alternatives give the lie to that claim:
Putin had more suggestions on Friday for locations for missile interceptors: "They could be placed in the south, in U.S. NATO allies such as Turkey, or even Iraq," Putin said. "They could also be placed on sea platforms."
It is just the location Putin doesn't like. First, he doesn't like the symbol of former colonies serving as bases for our missiles defenses.
And second, this seems to support Strategypage's argument (I forget the post) that Russia just really doesn't like a radar that will be powerful enough to observe everything in the air over European Russia.
We are going to discuss the issue with Russia:
Bush said a working group including the United States and Russia would "discuss different opportunities and different options, all aimed at providing protection for people from rogue regimes who might be in a position to either blackmail and/or attack those of us who live in free societies."
If Russia really doesn't want us to station a radar in Eastern Europe capable of watching Russian air activity very closely, the Russians could stop arming the Iranians and aiding the mullah drive for nukes. Could this be one of those opportunities to end the threat of rogue regimes that drive our push for missile defenses in Eastern Europe?
Of course, if we overthrow the mullahs, we wouldn't need to build that missile site--and especially the radar site.
So maybe if the Russians are just a little supportive of our efforts, the mullah nuclear threat will be ended. And then we can cancel the bases.
Is this trade between America and Russia the real deal in the works?
