At first it seemed like a political ploy or even a publicity stunt when Russian President Vlad Putin offered to settle his differences with Bush by having the advanced, anti-missile operation planned for Poland and the Czech Republic situated instead in Azerbaijan.
It turns out Putin's proposal makes a lot of sense unless Bush has been lying through his teeth again.
McClatchey News Service quotes several American experts in saying the Azerbaijan site is superior - if (and here's the "if") Bush genuinely wants to guard against an Iranian missile attack.
"A radar in Azerbaijan would be better able to monitor missiles launched from anywhere in Iran and could monitor missiles aimed at any part of Europe, whereas a radar in the Czech Republic could not track missiles headed toward parts of Eastern Europe, they said.
"Equally important is what a radar in Azerbaijan couldn't do: track intercontinental ballistic missiles Russia fired at the United States. This would reassure the Kremlin that the U.S. system was directed only at Iran, they said.
"'If it is in Azerbaijan, it's unambiguously aimed at Iran and can't be used against Russia,' said Ted Postol, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology physicist and long-time critic of U.S. missile defense efforts.
"'It's closer to Iran. And secondly, it covers all of Europe, which the European site does not,' agreed Phillip Coyle, a former chief of the Pentagon's weapons testing office who also has been critical of the Bush missile defense plan. "It's technically a better site."
So Vlad Putin's offer genuinely calls Bush's bluff. If he dismisses it without good reason, he legitimizes Moscow's claims that the European site is, in fact, poised against Russia.
1 comment:
Ignoring the obvious, of course that the missile shield in question is hardly technically feasible anyway - it just won't work. Its a great big corporate welfare scheme for the likes of Boeing, Haliburton and the other ususal suspects.
So your point is taken, but the bigger issue is, why is the US spending billions on a missile shield that won't work to guard against an attack from a country with no missile cabailities to reach Europe, let alone the US?
No its is about Russia, since only they have the capability to reach any of those places.
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