Back to the future: new US-Russia arms race

[CShine]

MOSCOW – When the US earmarked billions of dollars for a new national missile defense and broke ground in Alaska, Washington emphasized that it would be "no threat to Russia." Then, with the inevitability of a cold-war counterpunch, President Vladimir Putin saw fit to reassure Russians that America's shield could be defeated, with a silver bullet successfully tested in February.

"No country in the world as yet has such arms," Putin declared of the new weapon, which amounts to a space cruise missile. It will be "capable of hitting targets continents away with hypersonic speed, high precision, and the ability of wide maneuver."

Welcome back to the future of US-Russian rivalry. Analysts say that a combination of US military efforts - including missile defense, plans for new low-yield nuclear weapons, and expansion up to Russia's western doorstep - are chilling relations with Moscow and spurring a new, higher-tech arms race. Despite American declarations of goodwill, Russian interpretations of US military shifts are tangled up with a deep history of rivalry, and a current fear of being left behind. A strategy rethink is under way in Moscow. Senior officers speak of an "asymmetrical" response to counter US strength without matching Washington's expenditures.

"I understand America's measures as a continuation of the arms race," says Viktor Baranets, military columnist for the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper. "With our slim budget we are making an effort to catch up with the rich American chariot."

http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0616/p01s04-woeu.html

[Massacure]

1. Oh great

One more mess Bush has gotten us into.

I hope Kerry axes missile defense. It isn't even all that accurate, all it does is suck up the American Tax Dollars.

[Worst Username Ever]

2. The world is fcuk'd eom

[kalian]

3. Just insane.....

I've always said it...don't fuck around with a country that can
lay some smackdown. And Russia CAN lay down some SERIOUS nuclear
smackdown.

We have to get rid of the bushistas....now....

[bpilgrim]

6. specially with 'Plastic Gun'

"If I wave a plastic gun in front of the police, when they are nervous and they think I'm a terrorist, I'm going to get shot, though the gun has no capability," adds Mr. Postol. "That's the game the Bush administration has been playing, with extremely negative consequences for the US."

:crazy:

peace

[Political_Junkie]

4. I feel as though this administration

has made me relive my entire life, from Vietnam all the way to Bush 41 all in 3 1/2 years.

[leesa]

5. WooHoo! A way out of the failed bogus 'war on terrorism'

Now they can go back to making money manufacturing and selling arms in the old fashioned way. Good fer bidness!