The new cold war: Russia's missiles to target Europe

Vladimir Putin has launched a blistering attack on Bush's plans to position elements of a missile shield in eastern Europe saying that this will set off a new cold war and that Russia will retaliate against US missile defence plans in Europe by pointing its missiles at European cities.

Russia has not specifically aimed its missiles at Europe since the end of the cold war but, asked if it might do so again if the US missile shield went ahead, Mr Putin said: "Of course we are returning to those times. It is clear that if a part of the US nuclear capability turns up in Europe, and, in the opinion of our military specialists will threaten us, then we are forced to take corresponding steps in response."

"What will those steps be? Naturally, we will have to have new targets in Europe."

He said: "We want to be heard, we want our position to be understood. But if that does not happen, we lift from ourselves any responsibility for the steps we take in response, because we are not the ones who are initiating the arms race in Europe."

Once again, the US - obsessed with a missile defence system that no-one can even guarantee will work - endanger the world's equilibrium by insisting on carrying on with this.

It's a right wing obsession which Reagan started and which spoiled negotiations between Reagan and Gorbachov, and it is apparently one which Bush is keen to continue.

It should not be forgotten that Bush's policy since he came to office has been to rip up all that came before. He has already withdrawn from the 1972 ABM treaty with the former Soviet Union which produced fresh tensions with Russia at a time when most were celebrating the fact that the Cold War was over.

Bush has always attempted to make it clear that the missile defence system is not aimed at Russia, although he has been at something of a loss to state who the Hell it is aimed at.

The president said Thursday that part of the reason for his trip was "to allay people's fears" about the system. "He thinks it's aimed at him. It's not," Bush said of Putin.

Instead, he said, the system is meant to protect NATO allies against hostile regimes. "Russia is not hostile. Russia is a friend."

If you aim a missile, you are aiming it somewhere. Bush is being spectacularly vague about where he is aiming these so-called "defensive" missiles. And the very fact that he is doing this when the US-Russian relationship is so good is simply baffling. He claims to be doing so to protect the US against any action by "rogue states", when there are no rogue states that anyone can name which possess weaponry requiring this sort of response.

"We are being told the anti-missile defence system is targeted against something that does not exist. Doesn't it seem funny to you?" Mr Putin said.

So now, thanks to an American right wing obsession with a missile defence system that they can't even guarantee will work, European cities now have Russian nuclear weapons trained upon them. This is only happening because of the right's obsession with Ronald Reagan and a failure on the part of that right wing to see the Reagan years objectively.

However, it is also happening because of the Bush regime's failure to accept any reality other than their own, a concept that Putin touched upon:

"Certain participants in the international arena assume that their opinion is the ultimate truth. That, naturally, does not help create an atmosphere of trust."

That certainly has been the defining feature of the Bush administration, that almost total belief that whatever they state instantly becomes reality.

We have witnessed it in Iraq and we have witnessed it in their approach to climate change. They seem to believe that simply by saying something, by announcing it as America's intention, then the sheer weight of their Empire will instantly make what they state a reality.

It is - as both Iraq and the world's reaction to Bush's climate change proposals show - a bampot theory that has no factual basis.

And yet Bush insists on continuing with it, even if the end result is Europe being targeted by Russian nuclear weapons.

I suppose that's what I find most depressing about the Bush years: the almost total lack of imagination. The complete inablity to see things out of the box. If Reagan did it, it must be good seems to be the mantra, no matter what is actually happening in the world.

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