Thursday, May 12, 2016

Zero Hedge — The Nuclear Arms Race Is Back: Russia Furious As US Launches European Ballistic Missile Shield


Very bad news, especially for those living in Greater Europe.

Russia will not let the US build a preemptive nuclear first strike capability unchallenged. Nor will China. Back to the late Forties and Fifties.

Speaking of that, I can remember when I was in grammar school and we had fire drills where we practiced evacuating the building, which everyone loved for the time off. But I also recall the nuclear attack drills, when all of us were terrified instead. The teacher would pull down the window shades to protect against flying glass, and all of us would get down on our hands and knees and crouch under out desks for protection. Of course, we were old enough to realize that this would be of no use in the event of an real nuclear attack.

With hypersonic weapons armed thermonuclear warheads now or in the pipeline, I guess there won't be much point in drills anymore.

On the other hand, the US assures Russia not to worry about this move:
As Robert Bell, a NATO-based envoy of U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter explained "we now have the capability to protect NATO in Europe. The Iranians are increasing their capabilities and we have to be ahead of that. The system is not aimed against Russia," he told reporters, adding that the system will soon be handed over to NATO command.…
… despite U.S. assurances, the Kremlin says the missile shield's real aim is to neutralize Moscow's nuclear arsenal long enough for the United States to make a first strike on Russia in the event of war.

See also

Dances with Bears
WHITE HORSES, RED LINES — MARSHAL GEORGY ZHUKOV’S GUIDE TO SURPRISING AND DEFEATING RUSSIA’S ENEMY
John Helmer

10 comments:

Random said...

http://www.vox.com/2016/5/9/11640038/donald-trump-donations-big-money

Promote to post please. Is this true?

Kaivey said...

I read that the Russians are testing a weapon soon that can wipe out a whole country which the US missile shield cannot detect. It has been nicknamed Satan 2.

Peter Pan said...

What happened to Satan 1?

Tom Hickey said...

He's being upgraded. Think of it as a promotion rather than a retirement and replacement.

Simsalablunder said...

"What happened to Satan 1?"

Married Rosemary and got the kid into college in Chicago.

Calgacus said...

Look What's Happened to Rosemary's Baby

Simsalablunder said...

Great documentary.

Kaivey said...

I don't know, all I know is, it's sounds terrifying. Anyway, they're only testing the missile, they are not going to arm it with Satan. Maybe a smaller explosive, instead.

Ryan Harris said...

The Russian economy remains dependent on oil and gas production and they're making few substantive efforts to move away from that model so their growing anxiety may get blamed on "The West" but... a good first step might be to move away from their dependence on USD and EUROs. As they are about to run out of USD reserves shortly they are going to tap their pension funds again. And then there will be hand-wringing over defaults in government and banks and companies. Forget about the fifth liberal column, There is a sixth column within the Russian government that doesn't trust the Russian government's Ruble and the Russian worker's productivity, apparently. It never gets talked about, instead we hear about Russian military trucks with doors that won't open and flubbed Space launches. But those are merely anecdotes of the bigger problem. And predictably, the US and Europe will be adversarial and let it blow up rather than helping and Putin will respond accordingly as his base is frightened by what they see.

Tom Hickey said...

Ryan, you must be getting your information The Interpreter, run by the Khordokovsky family. :)

John Helmer, Alexander Mercouris, and Jon Hellevig tell a different story, for example, and I regularly link to them at MNE as an antidote to the Western russophobic media.