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AOG, Madrid
The struggle during the Cold War made for a, sort of, peaceful world (in its own radical and paranoid way) where tensions were drawn out through proxy countries, but what about today? It isn't just the "good" guys these days who have their finger on the button.
Yes, it is so cool that nowadays any tinpot little dictator can get his mittens on nuclear weapons and threaten the planet, just like the tinpot little democracies which invented the dammed thing in the first place.
Modernity so rules!
I wonder how long before we blow each other to pieces in the name of...wait, what was it again?
About North KoreaRead the Article at HuffingtonPost
AOG, MadridU.S. plans to deploy parts of an anti-missile defence system in Poland and the Czech Republic have become a fresh irritant in US-Russian relations. Washington says the system is needed for defence against rockets launched by Iran and North Korea - an argument rejected by Moscow. Russia is wary of US missiles close to its borders.
Who is at fault?
NATO should heed Russian President Vladimir Putin's call for talks about a U.S. missile shield to be built in formerly communist eastern Europe, German Deputy Foreign Minister Gernot Erler said on Monday.
Russian premier Vladimir Putin used this weekend's high-profile security conference in Munich to accuse the US of sparking a new arms race by trying to become the world's "one single master", a speech U.S. senator Joseph Lieberman said smacked of Cold War rhetoric.
Putin, understandably, has attacked the missile shield to be located in Poland and the Czech Republic and has warned that enlargement of NATO was "a serious factor provoking reduced mutual trust". Nothing new perhaps, except that now Russia is more powerful and influential than it was, say, 5 years ago. Russia 2007 is resurgent, mostly due to its being flush with oil and gas money. It has paid off its debts and is thus no longer corsetted by the constraints of international financial organizations. Putin is tightening controls at home, increasingly bullying its neighbors and acting almost reflexively antagonistic to American interests around the world. The US needs Russian support abroad but it is finding it hard to get. Russia, erratically perhaps, has been seen more intent to cooperate with countries such as Iran than to join the West and give more aplomb to UN resolutions and international pressure.
Should the US antagonise its former rival further?
Washington has suggested the shield in question is needed to protect Europe from Iranian missiles, however Moscow believes Washington and its NATO allies are building the shield because of Russia- if not that, then certainly they are being built too close to home. The Warsaw pact died a long time ago, however NATO is still running strong and it has declined on numerous occassions to allow Russia in. Russia sees a nuclear threat on its border once again. Only this time, they have not provoked it. There is no Cold War in 2007.
"I think it would make sense to take the Russian president's comments about the perception of NATO seriously" Germany's Erler said.
Although NATO has had years of good cooperation with Russia-especially in the former Yugoslavia- Putin fears the missile shield would "bring NATO capabilities closer to the Russian border and this without any intensive discussions or negotiations with Russia", Erler said.
"There is something that needs to be clarified here, namely what actually is the relationship between NATO and Russia". It was also important to consider whether talks could avoid any irritation on Russia's part so that Moscow would not take any military steps that would lead to a new arms race, he said.
The idea of negotiating the missile shield with Russia would not be pleasant for the Czech Republic. Czechs remain suspicious of Putin's Russia and fear the new Moscow wants to make old Russia a dominant power in Europe the way the Soviet Union once was. After all, same country, different name.
Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg shrugged off Moscow''s criticisms. "Demands from other states will not influence our government" Schwarzenberg told the Munich conference, adding it was "an internal issue" for Prague. So is Russia to believe that the Czech republic is under threat from Iran? Poland too? But not Italy, Greece, Portugal or Spain?
No new Cold War
German government spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm told reporters that Berlin did not see Putin's speech as a sign that Russia was trying to revive Cold War animosities.
After Putin''s speech Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied the Russian president was trying to provoke Washington, saying it was a call for thought and dialogue. Perhaps the West should take heed. America's recent foreign policy has more than paved the way for Russia to increase its sphere of influence, especially over former Soviet client-states such as Iran.
Erler said he viewed Putin's speech in the context of Russia's search for its proper place on the international stage- whatever this might be- its increasing self-confidence and the increasing significance of its vast oil and gas resources.
Well, naturlich! If anyone thought that 1991 was the end of Russia, they were very mistaken. It is only a matter of time before that particular Bear begins to flex its muscle once again. Europe and the US should be prepared for what looks to be an aggressive power in search of influence and prestige.
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