Clever boys. Gonna give the liberals some cognitive dissonance tonight for sure! Read on!LONDON (AP) - The chief U.S. missile defense negotiator defended plans to place anti-missile sites in Eastern Europe, saying Wednesday that the system could prevent a war with Iran by building an effective deterrent.
"Our intent is to address emerging threats in the Middle East," U.S. Assistant Secretary of State John Rood said in an interview with The Associated Press during a visit to London to attend a conference on defense trade. "Countries like Iran are developing long-range missile systems. And we're concerned not only about the emerging capability but of the hostile intent from countries in the region."
| "All we are saying is give peace a chance, can you dig it?" |
Moscow objects to the plans, saying the system is meant for spying on Russia.
Everything is about Russia, isn't it?
| "Spies! All spies!" |
"We think (missile defense) helps create disincentives for development of missiles," he said in regard to Iran.
The U.S. system relies on interceptor missiles with refrigerator-sized "kill vehicles" designed to destroy an incoming warhead at high speed. Rood said the sites in the western United States helped avert a crisis in the summer of 2006, when North Korea test-fired a series of missiles, including its latest long-range model, known abroad as the Taepodong-2, which experts believe could reach Alaska, Hawaii and perhaps the U.S. West Coast.
Some U.S. officials had argued for a pre-emptive strike on North Korea, but the administration did not seriously consider it, Rood said, in part because the anti-missile system provided a potential defense. "We didn't have to escalate the crisis by moving forces to the region, placing people on alert, " Rood said.
In Europe, Rood said, it is crucial to have batteries in place before a similar threat emerges from the Middle East. The Pentagon fears Iran could develop a missile capable of reaching the U.S. by 2015. Russia believes Iran is decades away from that point.
In June, Iran's top security official, Ali Larijani, called the U.S. anti-missile plan "the joke of the year."
| Next year they'll publish a pic of a Standard-3 missile in the Tehran Times and tell everyone they invented it. |
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told the AP in an interview in New York on Monday, that Iran has always maintained a defensive policy and has "never sought to expand its territory." "Iran will not attack any country," Ahmadinejad said, when asked if Iran would ever strike first against Israel.
Moscow's concern with the program, Rood said, is that it could expand beyond its current scope and weaken the capability of Russia's strategic forces.
Russia has suggested that the United States share the use of a Russian-leased radar installation in Azerbaijan and a radar in southern Russia. U.S. officials have said the radar's technology is outdated and emphasized that even if they were to use the Russian radar, it would not replace the other elements.
But the two sides have exchanged intelligence assessments on Middle East threats and U.S. experts have briefed Moscow on the system's capabilities, which Rood said fall short of being able to shoot down a Russian intercontinental ballistic missile.
OK liberals, think about this:
If you want peace, prepare for war.
Attack your enemy when he is weakest.
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.