- "Don't blame the mirror if your face is crooked." -- Vladimir
Putin quoting Russian proverb
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- If the Bush administration proceeds with its plan to
deploy its Missile Defense System in Poland, Russian Prime Minister Putin
will be forced to remove it militarily. He has no other option. The proposed
system integrates the the entire US nuclear arsenal into one operational-unit
a mere 115 miles from the Russian border. It's no different than Khrushchev's plan
to deploy nuclear missiles in Cuba in the 1960s.
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- Early last year, at a press conference that was censored
in the United States, Putin explained his concerns about Bush's plan:
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- "Once the missile defense system is put in place
it will work automatically with the entire nuclear capability of the United
States. It will be an integral part of the US nuclear capability....And,
for the first time in history---and I want to emphasize this---there will
be elements of the US nuclear capability on the European continent. It
simply changes the whole configuration of international security..Of course,
we have to respond to that."
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- Nuclear weapons specialist, Francis A. Boyle, says the
Bush administration's plans represent the "longstanding US policy
of nuclear first-strike against Russia." In Boyle's article "US
Missiles in Europe: Beyond Deterrence to First Strike Threat" he states:
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- "By means of a US first strike about 99%+ of Russian
nuclear forces would be taken out. Namely, the United States Government
believes that with the deployment of a facially successful first strike
capability, they can move beyond deterrence and into "compellence."
This has been analyzed ad nauseam in the professional literature. But especially
by one of Harvard's premier warmongers in chief, Thomas Schelling --winner
of the Nobel Prize in Economics granted by the Bank of Sweden-- who developed
the term "compellence" and distinguished it from "deterrence."
The USG is breaking out of a "deterrence" posture and moving
into a "compellence" posture. (Global Research 6-6-07)
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- Bush's real goal is to force Moscow to conform to Washington's
diktats or face the prospect of first-strike nuclear annihilation. Putin
must respond.
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- Putin needs to present his case before
the UN General Assembly emphasizing how the proposed US system upsets
the nuclear balance of power and poses a direct threat to Russia's national
security. He should give an account of US activities in Central Asia
since the fall of the Berlin Wall showing how the Bush administration
has pursued a hostile policy of encirclement and strangulation towards
the Russian Federation. The US has brought most of the former Soviet
satellites into NATO, including Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and
now is seeking membership for Georgia and Ukraine right on Russia's border.
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- The US has expanded its military installations in other
areas of Central Asia, primarily Afghanistan, posing long-range problems
for the entire region.
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- The Bush administration has also used its intelligence
agencies and NGOs to foment political unrest and topple regimes which were
sympathetic to Moscow in its "color-coded" revolutions.
Eurasia is now inundated with American puppets who get their
marching-orders from the White House.
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- Also, the US and its allies have declared Kosovo,
a vital part of Serbian territory, independent without UN approval. Serbia
is a traditional ally of Russia's. Many analysts now believe that the recent
fighting in South Ossetia was directly connected to the Bush administration's blatant
disregard for Serbia's sovereignty.
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- Putin recently responded to these developments saying:
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- "Some people have the illusion that you can do
everything just as you want, regardless of the interests of other people.
Of course it is for precisely this reason that the international situation
gets worse and eventually results in an arms race. But we are not the instigators.
We do not want it. Why would we want to divert resources to this? And we
are not jeopardizing our relations with anyone. But we must respond. Name
even one step that we have taken or one action of ours designed to worsen
the situation. There are none. We are not interested in that. We are interested
in maintaining a good atmosphere." Putin added exasperated, "So
what should we do?" The present situation has brought us "the
brink of disaster!"
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- Russia has complied with its treaty obligations and
removed all of its heavy weapons from the Eastern Europe and put them behind
the Ural Mountains. They have reduced their military by 300,000.
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- At the same time Washington has increased its arms shipments
to new allies in Eastern Europe and is building two new military bases
in Romania and Bulgaria. Missile Defense components and radar are going
up in the Czech Republic and Poland. Obviously, Russia cannot continue
to disarm unilaterally while neighboring states bulk up with new US-made
weapons systems.
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- When Putin heard that the Bush administration was developing
"bunker-busting" nuclear weapons he said to Bush:
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- "It would be better to look for other ways to fight
terrorism than create low-yield nuclear weapons that lower the threshold
for using these weapons, and thereby put humankind on the brink of nuclear
catastrophe. But they don't listen to us. They are not looking for compromise.
Their entire point of view can be summed-up in one sentence: 'Whoever is
not with us is against us.'"
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- It wasn't Russia who scrapped the Anti-Ballistic Missile
Treaty (ABM) That was the Bush administration, too.
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- American expansionism has thrust the world into another
arms race pitting East against West Cold War-style. The present system
of international security has been upended and we are moving inexorably
towards a military showdown between the two nuclear-armed powers.
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- As Putin stated at the press conference, "I am
convinced that we have reached that decisive moment when we must seriously
think about the architecture of global security."
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- Indeed.
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- Russia is experiencing a Renaissance. 20 million people
have been raised from poverty since Putin took office 8 years ago. The
Russian economy has been growing by 7% a year, real incomes are growing
by an astonishing 12% per year and Moscow has become a thriving center
of global trade. Oil and natural gas have restored Russia to its formal
role as one of the great world's great powers. The last thing Putin wants
is a nuclear standoff with the United States. But he will not shirk from
his responsibilities either. If the Missile Defense system is deployed,
Putin will be forced to raise the stakes and send warplanes over the construction
site. That is the logical first-step that any responsible leader would
take before removing the site altogether.
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- Bush should consider very carefully whether he wants
to go ahead with this game of nuclear chicken or not. Putting a knife to
Moscow's throat is an act of aggression equal to invading Iraq, only this
time the victim has the ability to fight back.
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