Over the past few days, something terrifying has emerged in Russia, largely unreported in the US media, and a direct result of the Bush administration’s terrible policies on non-proliferation and nuclear weapons. Russia is deploying new ICBMs.
A mobile version of Russia’s single-warhead Topol-M intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) entered service Dec. 4.
Russia accelerated its efforts to build a mobile Topol-M (SS-27 by NATO classification) in 2002, after Washington withdrew from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty to deploy missile defenses. The U.S. withdrawal was widely regarded in Moscow as an attempt to tilt the strategic nuclear balance in Washington’s favor.
In case you forgot, Bush gave notice that the US was withdrawing from the ABM Treaty in December of 2001 so that America could continue developing the miracle defense shield that would protect us from all of those nuclear weapons that Al Qaeda was certain to launch.
The terrifying ramifications of one of the worst US Foreign Policy decisions, below the fold.
From the mouths of babes:
Six months ago, I [George W. Bush, Idiot-in-Chief,] announced that the United States was withdrawing from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty, and today that withdrawal formally takes effect. With the Treaty now behind us, our task is to develop and deploy effective defenses against limited missile attacks. As the events of September 11 made clear, we no longer live in the Cold War world for which the ABM Treaty was designed. We now face new threats from terrorists who seek to destroy our civilization by any means available to rogue states armed with weapons of mass destruction and long-range missiles. Defending the American people against these threats is my highest priority as Commander-in-Chief…
Last month, President Vladimir Putin and I agreed that Russia and the United States would look for ways to cooperate…Over the past year, our countries have worked hard to overcome the legacy of the Cold War and to dismantle its structures. The United States and Russia are building a new relationship based on common interests and, increasingly, common values.
Leave alone the question as to why, once attacked by men with boxcutters on airplanes, his first instinct was to withdraw from a Nuclear Treaty with Russia. Or why the Russians seem to have taken advantage of the American withdrawal with the creation of the Topol-M system, while the US’s missile shield remains a crayon sketch in a Pentagon coloring book. Or why he would believe that the US withdrawing from such a treaty would make the Russians feel all safe and snuggly.
Mr. President, are you sure you looked into the eyes of Vladimir before writing off Russia and wider nuclear attacks as a threat? Because Vlady doesn’t really see things the same way. From the Defense News story linked above:
The United States has long viewed mobile Soviet and Russian ICBMs with concern, and has pushed for limitations on their development and deployment ever since Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty negotiations began in the 1980s, said Alexei Arbatov, a nuclear security expert at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences…
Putin and Ivanov said that Topol-M and its naval modification Bulava, which can carry 12 individually targeted warheads, are to be the core of the country’s nuclear deterrent forces.
As U.S.-Russian relations were getting increasingly strained in the past few years, Putin has repeatedly said that Russia needs a strong military to fight off foreign pressure.
Yes, Virginia, the Cold War may, in fact, be coming back in style. Mobile ICBMs, by the way, make a perfect present to your favorite terrorist. Difficult to detect, harder to destroy, and capable of far more damage than anything North Korea could put out, the elimination of the ABM treaty essentially created an incentive for Russia to produce something far more dangerous to the United States than anything we faced prior to 2002.
Now that the President has voided the ABM treaty, in addition to cutting out the legs from underneath Non-proliferation efforts in an attempt to have a “foreign relations victory”, the world seems to be spiralling back into a cold-war.
Who could have foreseen that withdrawing from the ABM treaty would be detrimental to our national security? Everyone, it seems, including some notable figures:
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (Democrat, Michigan) warned that possible retaliatory steps by Russia in withdrawing from other arms control treaties would “likely lead to an action-reaction cycle in offensive and defensive technologies, including countermeasures.” And, Levin said, “That kind of arms race would not make us more secure.”
Expressing similar sentiments, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (Democrat, South Dakota) termed abrogation of the treaty “a high price to pay for testing that’s not required this early in the schedule for missile defense.”
While the debate over domestic policies may take a bit longer to solve, in foreign policy there is no doubt: George W. Bush is the worst President ever.
