Putin and his missile fantasies

 

Last week Russia’s president Vlad Putin declared that the Soviets had developed a hypersonic missile that could evade any missile defense system in the world. According to Breitbart;

“Russia … has tested missile systems that no one in the world has,” the ITAR-Tass, Interfax and RIA Novosti news agencies quoted him as saying at a news conference. “These missile systems don’t represent a response to a missile defense system, but they are immune to that. They are hypersonic and capable of changing their flight path.”

Faster than the speed of light, Vlad? Because that’s how fast a laser travels. I guess that since we’ve acted like we believe that Iron Age North Korea has developed a nuke, Putin figures he can try to convince us of Russia’s technological advantages over our own systems. Actually it’s a trick – a trick to convince the Left in the US that developing a missile defense will only lead to an arms race. The US Left being the gullible group of suggestable idiots that they are.

So after making this big announcement about these fantastic missiles the Russians have developed (even though they can’t make a decent toaster), this week he announces that he’ll point his missiles at Europe, according to Gregory White of the Wall Street Journal;

President Vladimir Putin’s threat to retarget Russia’s missiles toward Europe ratchets up already simmering East-West tensions just as the U.S. and Europe were seeking to cool them.

Mr. Putin said in an interview ahead of a summit this week of the world’s major powers that Russia would take the action if Washington went ahead with plans to install an antimissile shield in some former Soviet bloc countries. Coming just days before Mr. Putin meets with President Bush and other leaders from the Group of Eight industrialized nations in Germany, the comments underscore the dilemma Western leaders face in dealing with a Russia that is increasingly intolerant of dissent at home and blunt in its economic and foreign relations.

So where were they aimed before? At the polar ice cap? Probably at Western Europe – gotta point ’em somewhere, right?

Does Putin really think that there’s more of a threat from Europe than from his Eastern neighbors? Even the Russians can’t be that ignorant. It’s just bluster designed to keep the Left from funding and deploying a missile shield without Putin expending anything more than air.

From the London Daily Telegraph, via the Washington Times;

In comments that seemed calculated to cause consternation and division at Wednesday’s meeting in Germany, the Russian leader said U.S. plans to erect a missile-defense shield in Eastern Europe had left him with no choice but to retaliate.
    “It is obvious that if part of the strategic nuclear potential of the United States is located in Europe, we will have to respond,” he told reporters from G-8 countries in Moscow over the weekend.
    “What kind of steps are we are going to take in response? Of course, we are going to acquire new targets in Europe.”
    Mr. Putin’s anti-Western rhetoric has grown more strident since Washington confirmed plans to put 10 interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar station in the Czech Republic by 2012 — a project he says is directed at Russia.

So he’s saying that NATO doesn’t have the right to defend itself – five years from now? I’m pretty sure if the US or Europe had designs on overrunning Russia, they would have done long before now. Like when there was so much political turmoil after the break up of the Soviet Union, or when the old Soviet Union was embroiled in Afghanistan.

In fact, the US says the missiles are intended to defend against Iran – which may indeed have nukes in five years;

   The United States says privately that the program is designed to stop one or two missiles fired by Iran, which continues to develop a nuclear program despite mounting international pressure.
    In a defiant speech yesterday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said: “Even if all the world powers are slitting their own throats, the Iranian people are invincible and will remain invincible.
    “Iran is not trying to make aggression against other countries. It only wants that its right be accepted and will not accept the injustice of the great powers,” he said.

That certainly seems more reasonable. of course, Putin would prefer to use the West as a boogeyman to frighten the Russians into submission. He’ll probably succeed in frightening Congress into submission, too.

Category: Foreign Policy