"My message will be 'Vladimir - I call him Vladimir - that you shouldn't fear a missile-defense system. --Bush, Tuesday June 5, 2007
Dick Cheney in Sydney earlier in the year, took it upon himself to complain about China's 'military buildup' and their shooting down of an old weather satellite. Cheney wasn't really concerned with any actual threat from China. He was just carrying water for his military industry benefactors, like Lockheed and Boeing who are shopping around Europe for governments willing to buy into their 'missile defense' protection scheme they've mapped out with the military industry executives who've infected the Bush regime even before his ascendance to office.
"Last month's anti-satellite test, China's continued fast-paced military buildup, are less constructive and are not consistent with China's stated goal of a peaceful rise," he said.
Cheney was well aware of efforts reported underway for years to sell missile defense systems in Central Europe which accelerated this year, including a deal with Britain's lame-duck, Blair, to take his country's defence dollars in return for the false security of hunkering his citizens underneath a U.S. missile 'umbrella', hiding from anticipated reprisals from Bush's continuing and increasing militarism.
The reasoning behind the Bush administration's planned deployment of these 'missile interceptors' to Europe has nothing at all to do with some Cold War threat from Russia or China, according to Secretary of State Condi Rice, who told reporters during a trip to Germany in February that, "There is no way that 10 interceptors in Poland and radar sites in the Czech Republic are a threat to Russia or that they are somehow going to diminish Russia's deterrent of thousands of warheads."
Even General Peter Pace, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff said at the beginning of the year in Jakarta that he wouldn't directly tie China's satellite shooting to any threat. "We should not assume anything about the Chinese anti-satellite test (last month) other than they now have the capacity to shoot down a satellite," he told reporters.
What is it then which compels the U.S. State Dept. and the Pentagon to ramp up the peddling of these missile systems to these European countries, unsettling decades of peaceful cooperation with their communist neighbors? There is a familiar theme which accompanies this latest round of fearmongering militarism by the Bush regime. Secretary Rice spelled it out after claiming Russia had nothing to fear from the new, planned expansion of U.S. military influence in their backyard.
"I think everybody understands that with a growing Iranian missile threat," Rice said in Berlin"-- which is quite pronounced -- that there needs to be ways to deal with that problem, and, that we're talking about long lead times to be able to have a defensive counter to offensive missile threats," she said.
Problem with that assessment is that Iran has no intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of striking the U.S. continent. Iran's longest range missile is the Shahab-3, which has a target radius of 620 miles. The Pentagon has been claiming for almost a decade that Iran is developing up to three new generations of the Shahab to increase its range. There is absolutely no evidence that Iran even possesses missiles threatening the U.S or has threatened the U.S. with missiles, yet, this entire escalation of concern which has supposedly prompted the Bush regime to step up the hawking of these dubious systems throughout Europe is predicated on their claims of an Iranian threat.
"There are no grounds for deploying the missile defense systems in Europe, Iran doesn't have any missiles with a range of 5,000 to 8,000 kilometers,'' Putin said in a June 1 interview.
It's not enough for the U.S. to illegally invade and occupy a sovereign nation in the face of Russian and Chinese objections, now the Bush regime is intent on pressing their aggression and military posturing against Russia and China's economic ally, Iran, to the point of destabilizing the balance of weaponry in Europe which had allowed the decades-old deescalation of tensions and relative peace to prevail. And, they want us to believe that the target of their own destabilizing aggression is the most pernicious threat.
It suits the Bush regime's short term agenda to isolate Russia and China in hopes of forestalling the coming shift in energy resources away from the U.S. as Russia and China bargain for a bigger share of the world's oil, and have made multi-billion dollar deals with oil-rich Iran, to the consternation of the U.S. and their Saudi benefactors who are desperate to stifle the influence of the Iranian oil on the world market.
The trips Cheney has made to Saudi Arabia this year, the most notable as Bush met with his Iraqi puppet in Jordan, were greeted with appeals from the Saudis for some action against what they claimed was Iranian interference in Iraq. Their message to Cheney was apparently received by Bush as he's ramped-up his rhetoric against Iran in the past year to a degree which would portend imminent war. It all played out into transparent fearmongering against Iran, in concert with the trumped-up UN sanctions restricting Iran's ability to follow through on its trade commitments. His rhetoric was punctuated by accusations he made earlier that Russia was intent on dismantling any democracy they had achieved and threatening its 'democratic' neighbors. But, his criticism was delivered with Iran in mind, more than any concern that Russia actually posed some new threat to the U.S. or Europe.
The Bush regime sees the prospect of Russia's shifting alliances as threats to the U.S. 'national security'. The administration would like nothing more than for Russia and China to be regarded as pariahs in the world community, especially now that their UN influence will likely be a determining factor in Bush's scheme to force even more action against Iran out of the U.N. Security Council. Bush and Cheney (and Rice) would be more than satisfied to isolate Russia, and China with a manufactured pall of suspicion and fear, making oil-producing nations reluctant to do business with Iran out of fear of U.S. retaliation and making existing deals with Iran appear sinister and threatening.
The 'Chinese military buildup' reports from the Pentagon, which surfaced earlier in the year, are old and deliberately released to discredit China, isolating them and their vote in advance of Security Council action against Iran that the Bush regime expected to increase as the deadlines for action on the sanctions already in place approach. The weapon's systems the Pentagon and US analysts have cited are no secret and have been under development for years. There is no surprising new threat.
The Financial Times reported in March 2006 that, "it was unclear what aspects of Beijing's development of its nuclear missile forces had surprised US analysts. The report merely cited information about the introduction of new weapons such as the solid-fueled, road-mobile DF-31 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), which has been under development for decades.
Ron Fullwood, is an activist from Columbia, Md. and the author of the book 'Power of Mischief' : Military Industry Executives are Making Bush Policy and the Country is Paying the Price
Don’t you just love it when rightwing pundits attack liberal bloggers for sinking to the level of rightwing fear and smear-mongers. Apparently they hold liberals to a higher level of expectation as far as ethics is concerned. But as Republicans have demonstrated time after time, lies and gutter politics win elections. So how can anyone blame liberals for getting down and dirty while counterattacking the rabid right?
The consequences for winning and losing elections have never been more stark. Republicans not only ignore every warning signal from mankind and Mother Nature, they storm the ramparts of reason with a suicidal religious fervor. From global climate change to preemptive wars to steal oil from off-white nations, Republicans are deaf to rattlesnakes.
When madmen rule the world, the world goes mad.
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rabblerowzer (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 227 comments)
on Sunday, June 10, 2007 at 6:45:57 AM
The "missile defense system" might just be a "clever" ploy.
Maybe the whole idea of a "missile defense system" in Europe is get Russia really worked up about it (which seems to be happening), and then when things come to a head, try to make a deal to get Russia to sell out on Iran: Ok, we won't put missile defense systems on your borders (impliedly to mop up after a first strike) if you sit down and shut-up and let us attack Iran for Israel?
I hope Putin doesn't fall for it. I hope the Russians realize that as long as they have some military and/or economic power, and attempt to maintain an independent foreign policy, Russia will be the target of endless treachery by Zionists and the Western puppet governments they control...the US/UK/Israel axis of evil will never relent.
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jpsmith123 (3 articles, 1 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 287 comments)
on Sunday, June 10, 2007 at 3:31:53 PM
You Dr. Strangeloves hear this! Nuclear War is obsolete!
The forces which shaped atomic science were not all creative. Today's atomic scientists can be likened to Prometheus' half witted brother, Epimetheus, without foresight and mere tinkerers. That the present set of Epimethean Dr. Strangeloves have not succeeded in destroying the planet by letting loose a radioactive plague against which we are defenseless is more the result of good fortune than good management.
Today the greatest challenges are not to be found in any new atomic science discoveries. We already know too much about atomic science for our own good. We no longer can bask in glory for having "conquered Nature" because we have no idea of what to do with this conquest nor how to prevent it from falling into the control of the half-witted Dr. Strangeloves.
The original atomic scientists might be likened to the Greek myth of Prometheus, a man of foresight and the bringer of fire, for indeed they were Promethean. Only we have become more powerful than than Prometheus, from now on we are the masters of our own fate.
The greatest challenge will be to prevent the half-witted Dr. Strangeloves from using the powers bestowed by the Prometheans and bring ruin to all of Nature of which we are only a small part.
We are not bound by fate in this matter. It is time to put the Dr. Strangeloves in sack clothes. We are the deciders not the Dr. Strangeloves!
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Bucky the Commoner (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 43 comments)
on Sunday, June 10, 2007 at 7:31:30 PM
