NATO leaders launched Sunday the first phase of a US-led missile shield for Europe, risking the wrath of Russia which has threatened to deploy rockets to EU borders in response.
A NATO official told AFP that US President Barack Obama and his allies “just decided” at a Chicago summit to put a US warship armed with interceptors in the Mediterranean and a Turkey-based radar system under NATO command in a German base.
AFP: NATO activates missile shield despite Russian anger
Everybody is worried about Russia’s reaction – how mad will it get, or what will it do? Does this sound like a friend? Doesn’t it sound more like Russia views NATO as an enemy and a threat? Does that sound like the Cold War is over?
Russian experts agree that the missile defense system poses little threat to Russia. Russian leadership is making such a big deal over the missile defense system because it views NATO as an enemy and a threat in general. The missile defense system represents a symbol of this threat, even if not a real threat.
NATO and the West needs to start mirroring Russia. It needs to view Russia as an enemy and a threat, and it needs to act accordingly.
Why does the West need missile defense?
Who helped North Korea and Iran develop their missile and nuclear programs?
Clearly, both Russia and China secretly helped (directly or indirectly) both North Korea and Iran with their missile program and nuclear weapons program. It is outrageous for Russia to then start complaining about the West’s reaction.
How did North Korea get its missiles?
Now, Robert H. Schmucker and Markus Schiller of Germany have come up with an answer: the North Koreans didn’t do it on their own. In a draft paper just posted at the missile proliferation blog Capabilities times Intentions, the two experts argue that North Korea managed to procure the technology from the former Soviet Union and Russia.
They don’t offer proof, but their paper is likely to raise questions once again about how much know-how and how many rocket scientists leaked to Pyonyang as the Soviet Union imploded. In The Dead Hand, I described how the Russian authorities stopped a group of designers:
How did North Korea get its missiles?
Who helped North Korea develop a modern nuclear program?
Pyongyang’s nuclear program would have been impossible without Beijing.
The North Koreans told Mr. Hecker they had developed all of this indigenously. I asked Thomas Reed and Danny Stillman, both former nuclear-weapons designers and authors of “The Nuclear Express,” an excellent history of nuclear proliferation, what they thought were the chances of that. Answer: “Zero.”
[Who helped North Korea develop a modern nuclear program?]
Which leaves China, the “most likely” provider of the North’s new toys, according to the authors. “There is no possibility,” they say, “of North Korea achieving what nuclear capability it has without Chinese help.”
Stephens: China Joins the Axis of Evil – WSJ.com
Did you think the Cold War was over with the fall of the Soviet Union. Look at Russia’s behavior in 1997 which was before Putin was elected president.
Russia was helping Iran with its missile development program in 1997
By providing advanced missile technology to the radical Islamic regime in Tehran, Russia is threatening vital U.S. interests and violating an international arms control agreement. Its assistance to Iran, the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism, threatens to alter the long-term balance of power in the oil-rich Persian Gulf region and endangers such key U.S. allies as Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey and other NATO members. In just three to four years, these countries and U.S. military forces in Europe and the Middle East could be vulnerable to attack by Iranian medium-range missiles developed with Russian aid.
Russias Dangerous Missile Game
More work from our friends – Russia and China – in the 90s. Clearly, the Cold War never ended but only went undercover.
Iran’s nuclear program helped by China, Russia in the 1990s
The foundation of Iran’s nuclear program can be traced to extensive Chinese and Russian cooperation in the 1990s, according to a former U.S. intelligence official who specialized on Tehran’s program.
“Russian and Chinese cooperation in the 1990s with Iran created the foundation of the Iranian nuclear program today,” said Susan Voss, a former nuclear engineering analyst with Los Alamos National Laboratory who has worked closely with the U.S. intelligence community.
Iran’s nuclear program helped by China, Russia – Washington Times
After reading about the help provided to North Korea and Iran by Russia and China, one has to wonder – at least I wonder – why the West is not preparing for nuclear war with Russia and China? Why is the West gutting its nuclear arsenal given this past behavior?
