Russia and US in the Throes of a New Arms Race

[Judi Lynn]

Russia and US in the Throes of a New Arms Race
by Jim Kouri
Dec 27, 2005

During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union embarked on the most massive military buildups in history. Part of President Reagan's strategy for winning was to entice the Soviets into a competition it could never even hope to win. A communist economy by its very nature is ill-equipped to compete with a free-market, capitalist system whether its foreign trade or weapons technology.

And so, slowly the Soviet economy became a basket case due to the communists desire to exceed America in an enormously expensive arms race.

After the Cold War, with the Soviet threat gone and with Democrat President Bill Clinton in the White House, terms such as "the peace dividend" became commonplace within the Washington Beltway and in the mainstream news media. No longer was the political establishment interested in defense, and the new agenda for the US was domestic.

However, slowly and methodically Russia's steel-eyed leader Vladamir Putin began to rebuild and expand his nation's arsenal and its fighting forces. This new phase in Russia's military buildup has created fear in some quarters in the US that a new arms race exists. Recently the Russians deployed a nuclear ballistic system that their generals made clear could render US anti-missile defense systems ineffective, according to reports in the European news media.
(snip/...)

http://www.postchronicle.com/news/security/article_2122501.shtml

[iamjoy]

1. Hooray! A Threat We Understand

Now all we have to do in case of attack is duck & cover and we'll be OK.

[bear425]

2. Kids can get right under their school desks and be safe.

I remember this one!

[DrRang]

6. Missile defense is already ineffective without Russian nukes. n/t

[bemildred]

3. What horseshit. nt

[tx_dem41]

4. China is still much more a long-term military threat on a large scale..

than Russia will ever "hope" to be. The threat from Russia is still its lack of security of its nuclear weapons.

[displacedtexan]

5. Great News For Cold War Condi!

This is exactly what she (and her throwback BushCo buddies) wanted!

[saigon68]

14. AFTER SHE WAS BEATEN WITH AN "UGLY STICK"

[BeHereNow]

16. DAMN YOU Saigon!@!!A!A!A!

There goes my perfectly good keyboard
due to a painful nasal expulsion of coffee!!!
ROTFLMAO!!!
BHN:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[bpilgrim]

7. Bush/America has restarted the cold war

ain't our war president grand

peace

[Hand]

8. I knew that "Pootie-Poot" moniker would come back to haunt us. nt

[1932]

9. Putin is responsible for build up? Hello! US foreign policy for the last

thirty years has been to talk all of the middle east into spending their petrodollars on US weapons.

[goforit]

17. Yes!!...Thank you GHWB +GWB +Cheney for the New Cold War!

[Julius Civitatus]

10. Cheney and Rummy are happy again

This is what they like. And Condi is excited as well, since this is all she knows.

Santa brought a brand new arms race with Russsia. Merry Crhistmas to all!!!

:puke:

[Barkley]

11. U.S. broke from the ABM treaty to build missile defense & exanded NATO

Many people on the left warned against dumping the ABM treaty but Bush wouldn't listen.

The Clinton and Bush Administrations NATO expansions probably didn't help matter much either.

We have established military bases in neighboring countries to Russia was well.

So the reaction is predictable.

[Tempest]

12. There was no race to keep up with the U.S. by Russia

Russia's military spending held steady at just over 4% before and during Raygun's administration.

The "arms race" was a figment of the neo-cons imagination and fear-mongering in order to justify Raygun's massive deficit spending on the military.

And let's not forget, it was during this time that defense contractors (and the neo-cons) were ripping off the U.S. taxpayers for tens of billions in cost overruns, fraud and waste.

[tatertop]

13. That is an excellent summation

4% is lower than I had thought

[LisaL]

15. Considering what is happening in Iraq, it's pretty

understandable a country might want to build up its weapons in order to defend itself.

[daleo]

18. The U.S. arms buildup began with Bush's election years ago

Blaming the Russians now is just an excuse for a buildup that has been ongoing for years.