The Thomas Chronicles

With our planned expansion of the missile defense shield to Central and Eastern Europe, Russia initially vehemently protested. At one point they even pronounced in bellicose language that all the anti-ballistic missile sites in Central and Eastern Europe would be “targeted”. They claimed that the proximity of our missile defenses so close to their territory would be a direct threat upon Russia. Furthermore, they claimed, it would upset the post-Cold War strategic balance of power and could possibly stoke up another Cold War.

Like many of our “allies” and enemies, Russia has a proclivity to view our dominance as a threat, that looming specter of the tyrannical hegemon. Last week Mark Pekala, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, said that “extensive talks were under way with Moscow, and that U.S. officials were open to the idea of merging the missile shield with a Russian system.” But he was at pains to state that in these discussions, “There‘s no quid pro quo.”

Bush today tried to allay Russia’s fears— for the moment at least.

MOSCOW (Reuters) -
President Bush on Wednesday told Russia’s
Vladimir Putin he was ready to discuss his plans for an anti-missile shield in Europe and Moscow said it had received the offer “with satisfaction.”
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“Putin laid out the reasons for Russian concerns about U.S. plans to create anti-missile defense bases in central Europe,” the Kremlin said in a statement after the two leaders spoke by telephone at Washington’s initiative.

“In this connection, the U.S. president’s expression of readiness for detailed discussion on this subject with the Russian side, and for cooperation in the interests of joint security, was received with satisfaction,” the Kremlin said.

The United States wants to build a radar station in the Czech Republic and a missile battery in Poland under a plan to expand its defenses against ballistic missiles which could be fired from what it calls “rogue states” like
Iran or
North Korea.

The plan has drawn strong opposition from Russia, which sees the missile shield as a threat to its security and an encroachment on its former sphere of influence.

When each country holds a few thousand thermonuclear devices, as Elmer Fudd would say, we should move wary, wary slowly.