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U.S. Black Sea Military Buildup Could Trigger Missile War

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He also warned that Russia's air defense system is substantially downgraded from what it was in Soviet times and its current state of disrepair is such that "Washington can voluntarily or unilaterally reduce its strategic nuclear forces because it can use high-precision non-nuclear weapons to suppress Russian nuclear arsenals....A missile defense system now would create...a headache for Moscow and would finish off the surviving individual ground-based or submarine-launched ballistic missiles." [6]

American interceptor missiles - whether of the Patriot Advanced Capability-3, Standard Missile-3, Terminal High Altitude Area Defense or Ground-Based Midcourse Defense variants - do not carry a warhead, conventional or nuclear, but are instead kinetic energy "hit-to-kill" vehicles that destroy other missiles on impact. The missiles they collide with and fragment, however, could contain conventional and nuclear warheads, leading to devastating fallout over the nation where they are intercepted.

There currently is concern in Russian military circles that if the stalled START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) talks do not address U.S. and NATO missile shield plans for Europe and its environs - as Russia insists they do and the U.S. that they don't - then parity between the two nations' nuclear arms and delivery systems would leave Russia at a decided strategic disadvantage if the U.S. and its allies could destroy the bulk of Russian nuclear missiles and bombers with non-nuclear interceptors.

Pavel Zolotaryov, deputy director of the Moscow-based Institute of USA-Canada Studies, warned that with the deployment of U.S. Patriot Advanced Capability-3 anti-ballistic missiles in Poland only 35 miles from Russia's Kaliningrad district and longer-range missiles elsewhere in Eastern Europe "we are witnessing the 'creeping process' of establishing a European missile defense system within the NATO defensive perimeter under U.S. supervision and without Russian involvement...." [7]

The nominal purpose for stationing medium-range ground-based interceptor missiles in nations like Bulgaria and Romania remains that of the previous Polish-Czech system advocated by the George W. Bush administration in Washington: Alleged protection against Iranian missile threats.

On February 26 Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko "signaled Moscow's skepticism about Washington's explanation that the interceptors were needed to protect US troops and NATO allies against the Iranian missile threat, saying...that Russia has 'serious questions' regarding its true purpose." [8]

In his own words, "We are witnessing again rushed decisions being made in the ballistic missile defense field in Europe....We keep having serious questions about the real objective of the US ballistic missile defense system. We will continue to oppose all questionable and unilateral acts that could have a negative impact on international security." [9]

In a February 21 column, Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Foreign Affairs Konstantin Kosachev voiced similar misgivings in writing: "Russia is not a member of NATO, and we have to remember, that we are talking about armaments of a military bloc that Russia is not a part of. When security is at stake, no sensible politician or army officer is going to find spoken affirmations- especially those claiming that no weapon is aimed at his or her country- sufficient."

He further posed the rhetorical query "who are these systems going to protect?" and answered: "Israel? The American fleet in the Persian Gulf? These are the two principal targets for future Iranian missiles.

"The quite limited range of Iranian missiles is not going to take them anywhere near Romania in the nearest future (and it's doubtful that anyone in Tehran has had such intentions before....)" [15]

In asking and answering the question he did he exposed the self-serving and circular reasoning behind U.S. and NATO interceptor missile plans. Iran does not have the capacity to launch missiles against sites in Bulgaria and Romania - not to mention Poland. Surely not at any target beyond those three nations. Neither does it have any reason to do so even if it could.

Perhaps the West is hoping to provoke an attack - or the contrived threat of an attack - as a pretext for "preemptive" attacks of its own. And not just against Iran.

In relation to talks on START, in limbo now for three months, the above-cited Russian parliamentarian added, "It is regrettable that all of this is happening during the course of intricate talks between USA and Russia on the new START....[A]ll of a sudden, as if it were orchestrated on the higher level, this Romano-Bulgarian missile issue emerges, creating an impression that someone was looking for a way to impede the negotiation process." [11]

Nuclear arms limitation and reduction may be another intentional target of U.S. missile shield plans.

The day before Kosachev's article appeared, General Nikolai Makarov, the chief of the General Staff of Russia's armed forces, was paraphrased as asserting "the missile shield was designed to defend illusory air strikes from Russia," and quoted as follows: "There are concerns that this missile defense system is directed against Russia....If we say that we should tackle possible threats together, we should respect each other and trust each other instead of strengthening military blocs near the Russian border....This means we have to take appropriate measures in response." [12]

On the eastern end of the Black Sea, on February 25 the USS John L. Hall guided-missile frigate arrived at the Georgian port of Poti, "about 30 kilometres (19 miles) from the de facto border with the Russian-backed breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia," [13] where eight days earlier an agreement was signed with Russia to build a new military base.

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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/
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