Why Washington's Ballistic Missile Defense in Europe Makes No Sense
It's time to end the war games that Washington hawks are so obsessed with and turn swords and nuclear bombers into plowshares, F. William Engdahl stresses.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union Washington and NATO took a series of steps which aimed to create "an alarming imbalance in the strategic relation" between the United States and the Russian Federation, American author, researcher and strategic risk consultant F. William Engdahl notes.
"The ultimate US brute force game against her long-standing nemesis, Russia, is the creation of a 'missile shield' aimed at Russia. In 2007, George W. Bush announced Washington was going to deploy what it called Ballistic Missile Defense," Engdahl writes in his article for New Eastern Outlook.
To
shed some light on what has been going on all these years, Engdahl
presents a retrospective of Russo-American relations after the fall
of the USSR.
Despite the fact the Cold War is over, Washington has continued
to push ahead with its 'NATO expansion' project. On December 13, 2001 US
President George W. Bush announced that Washington was going
to unilaterally withdraw from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
At the same time US Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld quietly kicked off the construction of a US Ballistic Missile Defense system.
The
researcher explains that the CONPLAN 8022 concept included not only
long-range nuclear and conventional weapons launched from the Unites
States, but only nuclear and other weaponry deployed in Europe, in Japan
and other sites.
"CONPLAN 8022 gave the US what the Pentagon termed 'Global Strike' —
the ability to hit any point on the earth or sky with devastating force,
nuclear as well as conventional," Engdahl stresses.
The third step of the Pentagon controversial military plan — a US Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) system in Europe — was unveiled in early 2007.
However,
Washington and NATO turned a deaf ear to Putin's words and continued
to deploy US controlled nuclear-capable missiles and anti-missile phased
array advanced radar detecting systems in Eastern Europe.
"It was aimed at the one nuclear power on Earth with the
sophisticated nuclear ability to launch an effective counter-strike —
the Russian Federation," Engdahl underscores.
Indeed, although the Western powers reached a compromise on Iran's nuclear program with Tehran, nothing so far has changed in NATO's BMD doctrine.
In August 2015 Russia reminded Washington of its words that BMD was primarily aimed at Iran:
However, according to Engdahl, the BMD program has little if any sense in light of Russia's new "bleeding edge" missile technology. "Russia's government has just announced that it has developed a new 'bleeding edge' missile technology that would make the hundreds of billions in dollars that the USA has spent on encircling Russia (and China) with BMD installations utterly worthless. It's a new ultra-advanced ICBM called RS-26," the researcher emphasizes.
It's "a surprise, a brilliant form of checkmate as in chess," the American author notes.
The question then arises, whether it's time to stop pouring billions of US taxpayer dollars in the Pentagon's "military games." Doesn't mutually beneficial cooperation between Washington and Moscow make more sense?
"The ultimate US brute force game against her long-standing nemesis, Russia, is the creation of a 'missile shield' aimed at Russia. In 2007, George W. Bush announced Washington was going to deploy what it called Ballistic Missile Defense," Engdahl writes in his article for New Eastern Outlook.
"It was more or less the beginning of a deep
and now fundamental distrust by Russia and by Vladimir Putin
of Washington's honesty and her intentions. Now Moscow, in what appears a
brilliant chess move, unveils a surprise response," the researcher
stresses.
©
Sputnik/ Dmitriy Vinogradov
At the same time US Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld quietly kicked off the construction of a US Ballistic Missile Defense system.
"In 2004 Don Rumsfeld also implemented CONPLAN
8022 that again put US Air Force long-range B-52 and other bombers on
'Alert' status as at the height of the Cold War. The Commander of the
8th Air Force stated that his nuclear bombers were 'essentially on alert
to plan and execute Global Strikes,' on behalf of the US Strategic
Command or STRATCOM, based in Omaha, Nebraska," Engdahl continues.
©
AFP 2016/ JANEK SKARZYNSKI
The third step of the Pentagon controversial military plan — a US Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) system in Europe — was unveiled in early 2007.
Make no mistake: far from being 'defensive,' BMD is offensive in the extreme, the researcher points out.
It became clear to Moscow that Washington was implementing a
long-term strategy aimed at encircling and potentially obliterating
Russia. The Pentagon's assertions that the system is supposed to counter
a threat posed by Iran and North Korea did not sound convincing.
"Missile weapons with a range of about five
to eight thousand kilometers that really pose a threat to Europe do not
exist in any of the so-called problem countries. And in the
near future…this… is not even foreseeable. And any hypothetical launch
of, for example, a North Korean rocket to American territory
through Western Europe obviously contradicts the laws of ballistics. As
we say in Russia, it would be like using the right hand to reach the
left ear," Vladimir Putin stated at the Munich Conference on Security Policy in 2007.
©
Sputnik/ Pavel Lisitsyn
Indeed, although the Western powers reached a compromise on Iran's nuclear program with Tehran, nothing so far has changed in NATO's BMD doctrine.
In August 2015 Russia reminded Washington of its words that BMD was primarily aimed at Iran:
"We don't see any reason to continue with the
program, let alone at such an accelerated pace and with a clear aim
at the Russian nuclear potential," Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei
Ryabkov told journalists, as quoted by Reuters.
Still, the US and NATO continues to set up missile defense sites across Europe and in Turkey.However, according to Engdahl, the BMD program has little if any sense in light of Russia's new "bleeding edge" missile technology. "Russia's government has just announced that it has developed a new 'bleeding edge' missile technology that would make the hundreds of billions in dollars that the USA has spent on encircling Russia (and China) with BMD installations utterly worthless. It's a new ultra-advanced ICBM called RS-26," the researcher emphasizes.
It's "a surprise, a brilliant form of checkmate as in chess," the American author notes.
The question then arises, whether it's time to stop pouring billions of US taxpayer dollars in the Pentagon's "military games." Doesn't mutually beneficial cooperation between Washington and Moscow make more sense?
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