Tag Archives: soviet

Moscow’s Reaction to U.S. and Poland’s Missile Defense Base

As you probably know, the US has been working with NATO allies in Europe to bolster their missile defense system to provide protection for us and the rest of Europe in the event that Iran or other rogue nations attack. The agreement is to put 10 missile defense interceptors in northern Poland.

“Hours after the signing, Russia’s Foreign Ministry warned that Moscow’s response would go beyond diplomacy. The system to be based in Poland lacks ‘any target other than Russian intercontinental ballistic missiles,’ it said in a statement, ‘In this case Russia will be forced to react, and not only through diplomatic’ channels.” “Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice dismissed any suggestion the 10 missile defense interceptors … represent a threat to Russia. ‘Missile defense, of course, is aimed at no one,’ Rice said. ‘It is in our defense that we do this.'” “Such comments ‘border on the bizarre, frankly,’ Rice told reporters in Warsaw. ‘The Russians are losing their credibility,’ she said.” “‘It’s 2008 and the United States has a … firm treaty guarantee to defend Poland’s territory (my edit: as do all members of NATA) as if it was the territory of the United States. So it’s probably not wise to throw these threats around.'”

I don’t understand Russia’s complaint. We even offered to allow Russia to be a part of the missile defense deal. And we’ve told Russia that even its current stock of conventional weapons is no match for what this missile defense system offers. It is for defense not offense and would not work well against Russia. Some people have claimed that we would be up-in-arms if Russia signed a deal with Cuba and started putting missiles back there. That’s true, we probably would… The point is that this is not the same. We and our allies have a legitimate reason for worrying about attacks from other countries. Russia has no reason other than to attack for stationing missiles in Cuba.