Russian general criticizes American National Missile Defense program

[CHIMO]

Russian general criticizes American National Missile Defense program

MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti defense commentator Viktor Litovkin) - General of the Army Yury Baluyevsky, Russia's Chief of Staff and First Deputy Defense Minister, has written an article, "U.S. NMD: What Next?"
It was published by the national defense weekly, Voenno-Promyshlenny Kuryer, ten days after the G8 summit in St. Petersburg. Leaders as senior as the chief of staff seldom write articles for the Russian press. They prefer writing articles and giving interviews to the foreign media before official visits abroad, and seldom reach out to the people via the Russian media. When they do, it is usually for a very serious reason.
Baluyevsky, the No. 2 man in the Russian defense establishment, could not keep silent when the Pentagon accelerated the National Missile Defense (NMD) project, and his article can be considered a policy statement by the Russian defense establishment. He writes that Washington has taken a turn towards unilateral global superiority, although "the time when Russia and the Untied States regarded each other as adversaries or a strategic threat is past" and their defense departments have been promoting cooperation in the last few years.
The idea of military superiority was incorporated into the Nuclear Posture Review, submitted to Congress on December 31, 2001, and was described in the U.S. National Security Strategy, which President George W. Bush put forth in March 2006.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/doc/HotNews.html#75628

[ShockediSay]

1. Relax Viktor, the big joke is on the US taxpayer - it'll never work

except to fatten the pockets of US gov contractors whose strongest accomplishment

is rip off - Witness Haliburton and the like.

[CHIMO]

2. Well At Least

The other EU countries can relax a bit, knowing they must be a little farther down on the list.

Poland reluctant to give America sovereignty over missile base
Poland's president has expressed reservations about surrendering sovereignty to the US at a site being touted as the sole European base for Washington's controversial missile defence programme.
Concerns have been raised over America's insistence that the base would be a sovereign US installation on Polish soil, and beyond the scrutiny of local legal and defence officials. "I approach the problem of extra-territoriality with reserve, I won't hide that," said the president, Lech Kaczynski.

The Warsaw newspaper Rzeczpospolita reported this week that Poland's government would be kept in the dark about the US base's operations and would not be consulted about missile launches.
Poland, a staunch American ally which is increasingly at odds with its European neighbours and partners under a national-conservative government, is the frontrunner to host the sole national missile defence site outside the US.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1831087,00.html

My, my. Seems like the twins are going to protest. At lest a straw dummy.

[MrPrax]

3. Gives a good insight

into where Russian's places the context with regards to the current US foreign policy.

"...Washington claims that the missile programs of Iran and North Korea are the main threat, but Baluyevsky writes that U.S. actions show that it thinks the threat is coming not from Tehran or Pyongyang, whose possibilities are limited, but from Russia and China. This poses a direct threat to Russia's security.

Russia's leaders said several years ago that America's withdrawal from the ABM treaty would not affect Russia's deterrence potential. But the situation has changed radically, and now Russia is worried about the deployment of some NMD elements, especially the construction of the first anti-missile base and the requisite infrastructure in Alaska, which is fanning tensions in the region.
....

But the biggest problem with a large-scale NMD system, according to Baluyevsky, is that it cannot guarantee reliable protection from weapons of mass destruction because it is designed only to destroy ballistic missiles. The 9/11 tragedy showed that weapons of mass destruction can be delivered to a target using non-military, terrorist methods, as well as using less technologically complicated, simpler and cheaper methods, such as cruise missiles, aircraft and warships.

General Baluyevsky suggests that the U.S. should stop squandering taxpayers' money on a useless NMD program, which could provoke a new round of the arms race, and should instead join forces with Russia and the other leading global powers to create a truly effective system of protection against threats which an NMD system can do nothing to counteract.

From Original article:RIA Novosti