|
|
,
Add to My Group(s)
Add to My Group(s)
By Rick Rozoff (about the author)
Become a Fan (12 fans) -- Page 2 of 5 page(s)
And as Reuters reported in the same month, "The Bush administration and Republican allies in Congress are again pushing for seed money to explore options for putting a multibillion-dollar layer of ballistic-missile interceptors in space [which was] first floated in the 1980s as part of then-President Ronald Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative."
Time Magazine echoed that observation in November of last year, stating that "President George W. Bush promised to build a 'Star Wars' missile shield, and he has kept that promise...."
With the above in mind, the extension of revamped US Stars Wars installations to Eastern Europe, in the case of Poland within immediate striking distance of Russia, takes on ominous dimensions.
As the Russian Novosti agency's chief military commentator remarked last November:
"[T]he strategic importance of these interceptor missiles would increase were the U.S. to deliver a first nuclear strike against Russia.
"In this scenario, interceptor missiles would have to take on the limited number of missiles surviving the first strike, which would allow the U.S. to hope for success and, for the first time since the 1950s, for a victory in a nuclear war."
And the official Chinese party newspaper People's Daily reported in May of 2007:
"[T]he U.S. is seeking to deploy bases within [the territory] of its European allies [and], if it succeeds, in building
interceptor bases and radar bases.
"Then, its missile defense system takes the shape with its homeland as its center and East Asia and Europe as
the two wings. "[T]he existing layout is...targeted directly and entirely at both Russia and China, and this is precisely the reason to arouse strong the opposition of Russia."
That is, the missiles in Poland have to be seen as part of a first strike strategy in two respects in which, if the threat doesn't work, the actual use remains.
The ground-based missiles themselves can hit Russia's two largest cities, Moscow and St. Petersburg, within
minutes.
Whether such missiles contain conventional or nuclear warheads, a fact only the Pentagon would know, is a distinction Russian air defenses and strategic forces wouldn't have the time or luxury to evaluate.
Even to take the US at its word and to assume that missiles with non-nuclear payloads would be used against 'rogue states,' they could produce the following results, in the words of the the Chief of the Russian General Staff Yury Baluyevsky and Ukrainian Defence Minister Anatoly Gritsenko, respectively:
"Within a radius of 500 to 600 kilometers, depending on the size of the interceptor's nuclear charge, an electro-magnetic impulse will be generated and cause a total power blackout, shutting down computers, generating plants, gas works, water-pump stations, radio and television, and dispatcher's offices in airports and at railroad stations.
"A shock wave will destroy many buildings and structures, while radioactive fallout will contaminate the terrain for years. The Chernobyl disaster would look like a child's prank." (December 2005)
“Nobody knows what can be inside these fragments [of alleged intercepted missiles]. If it is not nuclear bomb or nuclear warhead in a literal sense, it can be a dirty bomb, for example, with radioactive agents that in addition to the effects from Chernobyl nuclear disaster may pollute our territory much more. It can be also any virus or biological weapon.” (March 2007)
Become a Fan (12 fans) -- Page 2 of 5 page(s)
Time Magazine echoed that observation in November of last year, stating that "President George W. Bush promised to build a 'Star Wars' missile shield, and he has kept that promise...."
With the above in mind, the extension of revamped US Stars Wars installations to Eastern Europe, in the case of Poland within immediate striking distance of Russia, takes on ominous dimensions.
As the Russian Novosti agency's chief military commentator remarked last November:
"[T]he strategic importance of these interceptor missiles would increase were the U.S. to deliver a first nuclear strike against Russia.
"In this scenario, interceptor missiles would have to take on the limited number of missiles surviving the first strike, which would allow the U.S. to hope for success and, for the first time since the 1950s, for a victory in a nuclear war."
And the official Chinese party newspaper People's Daily reported in May of 2007:
"[T]he U.S. is seeking to deploy bases within [the territory] of its European allies [and], if it succeeds, in building
interceptor bases and radar bases.
"Then, its missile defense system takes the shape with its homeland as its center and East Asia and Europe as
the two wings. "[T]he existing layout is...targeted directly and entirely at both Russia and China, and this is precisely the reason to arouse strong the opposition of Russia."
That is, the missiles in Poland have to be seen as part of a first strike strategy in two respects in which, if the threat doesn't work, the actual use remains.
The ground-based missiles themselves can hit Russia's two largest cities, Moscow and St. Petersburg, within
minutes.
Whether such missiles contain conventional or nuclear warheads, a fact only the Pentagon would know, is a distinction Russian air defenses and strategic forces wouldn't have the time or luxury to evaluate.
Even to take the US at its word and to assume that missiles with non-nuclear payloads would be used against 'rogue states,' they could produce the following results, in the words of the the Chief of the Russian General Staff Yury Baluyevsky and Ukrainian Defence Minister Anatoly Gritsenko, respectively:
"Within a radius of 500 to 600 kilometers, depending on the size of the interceptor's nuclear charge, an electro-magnetic impulse will be generated and cause a total power blackout, shutting down computers, generating plants, gas works, water-pump stations, radio and television, and dispatcher's offices in airports and at railroad stations.
"A shock wave will destroy many buildings and structures, while radioactive fallout will contaminate the terrain for years. The Chernobyl disaster would look like a child's prank." (December 2005)
“Nobody knows what can be inside these fragments [of alleged intercepted missiles]. If it is not nuclear bomb or nuclear warhead in a literal sense, it can be a dirty bomb, for example, with radioactive agents that in addition to the effects from Chernobyl nuclear disaster may pollute our territory much more. It can be also any virus or biological weapon.” (March 2007)
Rick Rozoff has been involved in anti-war and anti-interventionist work in various capacities for forty years.
He lives in Chicago, Illinois.
Is the manager of the Stop NATO international email list at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnato/
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author
and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
 Contact Author |
Contact Editor |
 View Authors' Articles |
Comments
The time limit for entering new comments on this article has expired.
This limit can be removed. Our paid membership program is designed to give you many benefits, such as removing this time limit. To learn more, please click here.
| No comments |