The State Department has revealed that the US is “conducting a review” of cruise missile tests by Russia back in 2008 to decide whether or not they violate the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.
State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said that the US has not ruled this was a violation, but that it takes the question of the treaty “very seriously.” Some speculations are that this putative violation would be used by opponents of new nuclear arms limitation deals.
Though the tests date back years, US officials say that they are still conducting probes of what the tests amounted to. They only informed NATO of the concerns on January 17 of this year, but apparently raised the issue with Russia back in May.
Senators are pushing legislation to require the administration to tell Congress exactly what they told NATO at the meeting. So far Russia has made no statement on the matter.
Washington has been working against Russia for 22 years ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. In violation of the Reagan-Gorbachev agreement, Washington expanded NATO into Eastern Europe and the Baltic states and established military bases on Russia’s borders. Washington is also seeking to extend NATO into former constituent parts of Russia itself such as Georgia and Ukraine.
The only reason for Washington to establish military and missile bases on Russia’s frontiers is to negate Russia’s ability to resist Washington’s hegemony. Russia has made no threatening gestures toward its neighbors, and with the sole exception of Russia’s response to Georgia’s invasion of South Ossetia, has been extremely passive in the face of US provocations.
This is now changing. Faced with the George W. Bush regime’s alteration of US war doctrine, which elevated nuclear weapons from a defensive, retaliatory use to pre-emptive first strike, together with the construction on Russia’s borders of US anti-ballistic missile bases and Washington’s weaponization of new technologies, has made it clear to the Russian government that Washington is setting up Russia for a decapitating first strike.
In his presidential address to the Russian National Assembly (both chambers of parliament) on December 12, Vladimir Putin addressed the offensive military threat that Washington poses to Russia. Putin said that Washington calls its anti-ballistic missile system defensive, but “in fact it is a signifiant part of the strategic offensive potential” and designed to tip the balance of power in Washington’s favor. Having acknowledged the threat, Putin replied to the threat: “Let no one have illusions that he can achieve military superiority over Russia. We will never allow it.”
Faced with the Obama regime’s murder of the nuclear weapons reduction treaty [Obama has called for more money for nuclear weapons than ANY OTHER PRESIDENT], Putin said: “We realize all this and know what we need to do.”
If anyone remains to write a history, the Obama regime will be known as the regime that resurrected the cold war, which President Reagan worked so hard to end, and drove it into a hot war.
Not content to make Russia an enemy, the Obama regime has also made an enemy of China. The Obama regime declared the South China Sea to be an area of “US national security interest.” This is akin to China declaring the Gulf of Mexico to be an area of Chinese national security interest.
To make clear that the claim to the South China Sea was not rhetorical, the Obama regime announced its “Pivot to Asia,” which calls for the redeployment of 60% of the US fleet to China’s zone of influence. Washington is busy at work securing naval and air bases from the Philippines, South Korea, Vietnam, Australia, and Thailand. Washington has increased the provocation by aligning itself with China’s neighbors who are disputing China’s claims to various islands and an expanded air space.
China has not been intimidated. China has called for “de-americanizing the world.” Last month the Chinese government announced that it now possesses sufficient nuclear weapons and delivery systems to wipe the US off of the face of the earth.
The militarily aggressive stance that Washington has taken toward Russia and China is indicative of the extreme self-assuredness that usually ends in war. Washington is told that US technological prowess can prevent or intercept the launch of Russian and Chinese missiles, thus elevating a US pre-emptive attack to slam-dunk status.
– Dr. Paul Craig Roberts http://www.globalresearch.ca/washington-drives-th…
The rhetoric noted in this Ditz report is part of Washington gearing up to create a pretext to wear down and eventually attack Russia.
The USA has a biiiiiiit of a rap sheet, since the colonists invaded North America, of violating treaties. Namely, the USA has been doing that non-stop since its inception.
The USA has more nuclear weapons than any country, and is in greater violation of international nuclear law than any country.
Three words: expansion of NATO. F you D.C.
NATO-Chief AFR is a traitor to Europe and the World. He says that the missiles the US is now deploying in Romania, Poland and on 32 ships in the Mediterranean Sea are to defend us from Iran! Professor J. Ed Anderson: "There's no doubt in my mind that deployment of anti-missile missiles in Eastern Europe is part of a first-strike strategy." This leads to Launch On Warning, probably by 2017 as the US Disarming First Strike Capability will be ready by 2018 supposedly. Bloody fools in the Pentagon ! Suicidal bloody fools in the Pentagon !