Posted on 04/03/2007 6:46:11 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - The U.S. will forge ahead with plans for a missile defense system in Eastern Europe even if efforts to calm Russian opposition fail, a senior Pentagon official said Tuesday.
Eric Edelman, undersecretary of defense for policy, said the U.S. and Russia have been discussing ways to cooperate in the plans, which would put a radar system in the Czech Republic and about 10 missile interceptors in Poland. The system would be used to guard against potential attacks against the U.S. and Europe from countries such as Iran.
Edelman said if the talks fail, the U.S. would not allow Russia "to dictate what we do bilaterally with other countries."
"We want to cooperate with Russia," said Edelman, who recently returned from meetings in Europe on the plan. "We think the threat is one that they face as well as one that we face. In fact, they come within range of these missiles before we do."
He suggested that data from the system's sensors and early warning technology could be shared with Russia. But he also agreed that efforts to cooperate with Russia on missile defense in the past have gotten bogged down in disagreements over tax and liability issues.
"I'm still very hopeful we will be able to reach some understandings with Russia that will allay their concerns," he said.
The $3.5 billion initiative has angered the Russians, who have said it could set off an arms race. The U.S. has argued that it is a defensive system which poses no threat to Russia.
Speaking to Pentagon reporters, Edelman said U.S. officials believe that by 2015 Iran will be able to develop a missile that could reach the United States. He acknowledged there were problems with pre-war intelligence on Iraq's nuclear capabilities, and said he would like more and better intelligence on the Iranian threat.
But, he said, "I think there is ... evidence here that this is moving forward and you can see it in their public statements."
Asked about ongoing public opposition to the project in Poland and the Czech Republic, Edelman said the U.S. needs to better explain that the system has no nuclear or conventional explosive warheads. He added that the U.S. would maintain control over the system, including when to use it in response to a missile launch, largely because a decision to strike would have to be made in two to 12 minutes.
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Good.
I’m not an isolationist. But, the realities of the changing demographic and political landscape in the EU are becoming more and more evident every day. We need to ask ourselves, do we really have a serious national interest in Europe? Would it be worth going to war over the EU?
“Would it be worth going to war over the EU?”
Nope. Let them defend themselves.
Continental Western Europe in my opinion has devolved into meatshields and speedbumps. Hopefully this strategic missile defensive system will absorb some of the missiles and hopefully the alaskan and others will assist, on that same note they should be placing many in iceland and greenland, didn’t we close a base in one of those recently?
Also I think Poland was a good choice because Turkey has proven itself unreliable at best.
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