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.
I also submitted this story on Daily Kos, where I noted that, because of our withdrawal from the ABM treaty, Russia will be free to export these new Nukes to foreign countries, which is a significant part of the problem.
Yet another reason to Impeach.
One more step towards armageddon and rapture…the people in charge are truly sociopaths.
Excellent point, I’ve included it on the kos diary.
But then again, those people are just Atomic Scientists, what do they know? Has anyone looked into their souls to see if they know what they’re doing with their Doomsday clock?
I think I might be overdone. Perhaps cooked! Impeach, enemy combatant, strip search and shave his head……you’ll find that 666 I swear to God! Strip search and shave Cheney and the cabinet because they have taken the mark and its somewhere on their bodies. You guys had better strip search and shave Powell too.
Why is this so terrifying? Russia has a democratically elected president and stable government. Russia has never attacked another country with nuclear weapons. Russia has never provided cover or excuse for nuclear weapons technology proliferation from allies. Russia has never built, financed or aided the construction secret, unacknowledged nuclear arsenals in allied nations.
I’d rather have the world’s nukes in Russia’s hands than in Bush’s.
Pax
is Bush’s incompetence leading to nuclear proliferation.
I’ve come to the conclusion that all this new Russia hysteria is the result of the desire for an enemy that is basically harmless (the Cold war did remain cold, after all), familiar (we had so much Russia “Bad Guy” propaganda rammed down our throats in the 20th Century, we feel like they are old friends at this point), and predicatble (we want our enemies to have a country, an army and be good old-fashioned enemies like us).
We can’t handle enemies who are dangerous (BushCo., Terrorists, Global Warming), new (ditto) and unpredictable (ditto).
I think we long for days when wars and winters were cold, when the enemy lived in a country far far away and when they made for good spy thriller movies. Things are too real and too scary right now. Like Grover said, we’re the monster at the end of the book now.
Not the Russians.
Full coverage of Russia’s missile program from RIA Novosti.