U.S. Missile Defense to Top Agenda

[CHIMO]

Source: Updated Moscow Time

The United States will seek to dispel Russian anger and European skepticism about a planned missile-defense system during NATO-hosted talks in Brussels on Thursday.

The meeting of senior officials from NATO and Russia is part of a U.S. campaign to rein in a dispute that some have compared to a mini-Cold War, and which has exposed divergences among NATO allies on security threats.

"We have been hopelessly behind the curve in explaining this. That has allowed others to hijack the issue," a senior U.S. official conceded.

President Vladimir Putin, who some analysts say is using the spat to divide the West, has said Washington's plan to deploy 10 interceptor rockets in Poland and a radar in the Czech Republic by 2012 is an encroachment on its former sphere of influence. He has warned it could revive the arms race.



Read more: http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2007/04/19/012.html

[tabasco]

1. This is just another profiteering scam.

The only function of "missile defense" is to funnel huge amounts of money from the Treasury to the super-wealthy cronies of the Bush mafia.

[Kolesar]

2. "missile defense" and a lot of the spy satellites are a colossal waste of money

And, like you said, crony capitalism (in a broad sense). The CIA and Congress thought that we could just buy satellite systems instead of investing in real intelligence and figuring out important things. Our biggest intelligence deficit was as simple as letting the "leaders" know that there's a difference between Shiite and Sunni Muslims.

[Paulie]

3. All they need to do is tell Russia that without a homing beacon on their missiles...

... the interceptors won't hit anything except empty space. Given all the testing done on the system, the Russians will believe it.

Problem solved!!! :sarcasm: