United Stupids vs Russia 1

With North Korea showing signs of being sorted by the 5 nation tag team, surely Russia isn’t being auditioned as its replacement on the Axis of Evul? Ongoing wars like those vociferously sought by Lon Cheney do require ongoing enemies.

Once again, the United Stupids are aggressing the Russkies despite protestations to the contrary. Do the Stupids really think North Korea would fire ICBMs over Europe when the quick route is in the opposite direction? Why would Iran, which doesn’t even have nuclear arms, fire at the Stupids over northern Europe? The Russkies have read the provocation correctly, and the Stupids must have known they would.

The new line of defence consists of a network of underground rocket silos in Poland and a radar system in the Czech Republic.

…

Moscow has also accused Washington of breaking its promise, made after the collapse of the Warsaw Pact, not to deploy missiles in Russia’s former satellite states.

Here’s that not-so-subtle pressure from the US we forecast a few posts ago. Russia met this week with China and India.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Jiang Yu, emphasized in a statement that the three-party talks among Russia, India, and China were not directed against any fourth country (Interfax, Xinhua, February 15).

Russian officials sounded even more specific, saying they did not intend to alienate the West. Cooperation among Russia, China, and India is not directed against any other country, and it is definitely not anti-American, said Andrei Kokoshin, head of the CIS affairs committee of the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament. It also does not amount to an attempt to create a grouping of three major Asian powers, because all three countries advocate the democratization of global politics and the world economy, he said.

However, Moscow made it clear it would not accept the role of energy supplier to the booming economies of China and India. Trilateral economic cooperation should not involve only hydrocarbon supplies from Russia to China and India; it should also involve nuclear power, Kokoshin argued.

The nations also discussed Iran, all three agreeing that:

… the deadlock between the P5+ Germany and Iran can be resolved through dialogue within the ambit of the International Atomic Energy Agency …

“We have a convergence of approach on the Iranian issue.”

Following these talks, and possibly feeling its oats after the affirmation of multi-polarism and reassurance that any attempt by the US to create a war against Iran via the UN Security Council would be resisted by China too, Russia threatened to quit the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces treaty unless the US reneged on its Polish/Czech missile shield plans.

Putin has said he does not trust US claims that the deployment of missile defense components in Europe was intended to counter missile threats from Iran, warning that Russia would take retaliatory actions.

Ivanov has rejected US arguments for deploying an anti-missile defence system in eastern Europe and insisted Russia would not be drawn into a Cold War-style arms race.

He also said Russia would upgrade its own defence systems to make sure its strategic arsenal was not rendered ineffective.”

Hmmm … sounds like some sort of arms race to us.

Nato has its own view.

… what Moscow really wanted was to be included in a European-wide anti-missile system.

“We are already talking to the Russians about co-operating on tactical missile defence for armies in the field,” said a senior Nato diplomat.”

Meanwhile, the Italians are attempting to prosecute the 26 CIA kidnappers of “Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, who disappeared near his mosque in Milan on Feb. 17, 2003, says he was kidnapped. The cleric, known as Abu Omar, was freed this week from jail in Egypt, where he says he was taken and then tortured.”

Fat chance of extraditing them from Doodoo’s clutches. Yet the Italian proceedings will help highlight the prevalence throughout Europe of governments secretly colluding with the US in extraordinary renditions:

European parliamentary committee issued a detailed report into what it said were “at least” 1,245 secret C.I.A. flights in Europe, some of them involving extraordinary renditions. The report, which awaits approval by the Parliament, is particularly sensitive because it suggested forcibly that a number of governments knew of the flights.”