After over a decade of talk and untold billions in spending, the first of the US missile defense shield in Europe is to be activated in Romania, providing anti-missile capabilities above and beyond those deployed abroad ships in the Mediterranean.
Since the effort to create the system began, Russia has been objecting to it, and while the Pentagon is still officially presenting the shield as targeting Iran, and the potential missiles they might develop at some point in the future, others in the US and NATO are being more circumspect about this being another eastern European buildup on the Russian frontier.
The US is also planning to start construction of a second base for the program, in Poland, even further out of the range of Iranian missiles, and even closer to Russian soil. Russian officials have warned for years they will respond by deploying more missiles to Kaliningrad to counter what the shield is capable of shooting down.
The missile defense system is unlikely to have any serious impact on the regional balance of power, apart from costing the US an enormous amount of money. The primary impetus to building the shield in recent years has been from officials looking to spite Russia for warning against its construction.
I’d be shocked if this system worked at all, but unfortunately the Russian planners are going to have to act like it does…
Iran has no nuclear arsenal. Hence no defense is needed.
Are you sure? Don’t you need a little more coaxing and convincing? Who will hold the little vial of bad stuff up at the UN this time to sell Clinton’s/Trump’s war on Syria?
I mean really, do you think it’s more difficult than showing a little bottle half full of water and calling it the boogeyman’s elixir?
A country only has a useful nuclear weapon let alone a nuclear arsenal after it has successfully exploded one bomb. Iran has not. Hence it does not have a nuclear arsenal. I am correct.
Yep, just keep poking the Bear, idiots.
http://russia-insider.com/de/politics/watch-putin-laugh-idiotic-question-german-journo-30-seconds/ri1630
How will Russia react this time? The last time the US tried this kind of crap the Russians decided to take some missiles into Cuba. Then the US backed off and that got Russia to back off too. Yep, that’s how it really happened.
And now with Putin who is probably a lot smarter than Kruschev and a lot tougher too, it’s going to be interesting! Then, on the other hand Putin may just ignore it because he knows there’s nothing the US can do to prevent big glass parking lots in at least a half dozen big US cities.