Toronto Sun: Don't ignore Putin's warning

[marmar]

By ERIC MARGOLIS


Vladimir Putin's harsh criticism of U.S. military and foreign policy on February 10 should have set off alarm bells in the West, but apparently did not.

In a startlingly blunt speech at a Munich security conference, Russia's president accused Washington of seeking world domination, undermining the UN and other international institutions, monopolizing world energy resources, destabilizing the Mideast by its bungled occupation of Iraq, and unleashing a new nuclear arms race by planning to deploy anti-missile systems in Eastern Europe.

Russia has long fumed over NATO's advance to its western borders, and Washington's attempts to replace Moscow's influence in Ukraine, the Caucasus, and Central Asia.

This column has long maintained that while one sympathizes with the desire of Eastern European states to take shelter from old foe Russia by joining NATO, pushing the alliance to Russia's doorstep was dangerously provocative and militarily ill-advised.

"He who defends everything," said Frederick the Great, "defends nothing."

The Baltic states are indefensible; Bulgaria and Romania are military liabilities, as Germany found in World War II. Bulgaria and Romania were included into NATO because the U.S. wanted access to their Black Sea air bases as part of its air bridge to the Mideast and Central Asia. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.torontosun.canoe.ca/News/Columnists/Margolis_Eric/2007/02/25/3664751.html

[scarletwoman]

1. I've long enjoyed reading Eric Margolis, thanks for posting this.

I don't always agree with him, but I've always considered him to be intellectually honest.

I really appreciate the end of his piece: "Many Western Europeans are starting to long for the Cold War days and old bi-polar world order.

No one loves Russia, but many Europeans say a strong Russia -- and China -- are necessary to restrain some of America's more overly assertive or unwise instincts."

As an aging Baby Boomer, I have also found myself -- much to my shock and surprise -- longing "for the Cold War days and old bi-polar world order."

I emphatically do NOT want to be a citizen of an imperial military global hegemon.

sw

(voted to recommend)

[Doctor_J]

2. Pssh. Il Dunce' told me Vlad has a good heart

i don't need to hear from anyone else on the subject

:sarcasm:

[Cirque du So-What]

3. It's a sorry state of affairs

when the President of Russia - former head of the KGB - can accuse America of being the most dangerous country on earth...correctly!

[depakid]

4. Back to the Cold War

Only this time, the US is bankrupt and running out of domestic oil and natural gas....

This week, Gen. Nikolai Solovtsov, chief of Russia's Strategic Missile Forces, warned U.S. BMD plans may compel Russia to withdraw from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, a cornerstone of U.S.-Russian detente, and deploy a new generation of intermediate-range missiles aimed at Europe. An over-reaction, but still ominous.

The Russians rightly scoff at U.S. claims the BMD systems in Poland and the Czech Republic are designed to stop missiles from Iran and other unspecified "rogue" states.

These new strategic systems, says Moscow and some western defense analysts, are part of the Bush/Cheney administration's profoundly destabilizing efforts to erect anti-missile defenses in Alaska and Europe that may nullify the nuclear arsenals of Russia and China.

In short, the White House is heading away from the traditional balance of mutually assured destruction to absolute nuclear supremacy.