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| | Field Marshal |  |
| | Group: Administrator,
Klikan,
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Outsiders
| | Location: Copenhagen | | Joined: 09.06.06 | | Posted on 04-04-2007 12:57 |
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From Daily Kos:
Great. Just great.
The Bush administration has begun to step up its efforts to build a controversial missile defense system in Eastern Europe, launching a public push in recent weeks to counter bitter opposition in Russia and to overcome fears of a new arms race elsewhere on the continent.
The move, coming ahead of a major NATO meeting on the project this month, could escalate a simmering diplomatic issue into a significant international dispute, depending on Moscow's reaction and the administration's next moves in its effort to base 10 interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar center in the Czech Republic, both formerly part of the Soviet Bloc.
The senior Pentagon official responsible for overseeing the plan said Tuesday in a briefing that the administration hoped to damp Russian opposition, but that Moscow would not be allowed to derail the project if no agreement was reached with the Kremlin.
"We think there is a benefit to cooperating with Russia; we think the threat is one that they face as well as one that we face," said Eric S. Edelman, undersecretary of Defense for policy, who returned from making the case for the system in European capitals last week. "That being said, I don't think if, for some reason, we're unable to reach a commonly agreed way ahead, that we would want to accede to Russia being able to dictate what we do bilaterally with other countries."
The administration has apparently decided that the rest of the western world just isn't adequately pissed off at us over Iraq. Or maybe al Qaeda was just too complicated an enemy, so they had to figure out how to restore the good old bad days with Russia as our foe. The missile defense system (a system which, btw, has yet to be proven effective and reliable despite the billions spent thus far) is being sold as protection against Iran, an explanation Russia isn't buying and Europe (having had just a decade or so of not having American weapons systems deployed in their backyards) doesn't want to hear.
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More at Daily Kos.
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