Russia contains multitudes on strategic defense
Mar 6, 2007 Medialites, Stragety
Yahoo! News reports that a top Russian officer claims, “Russia’s bomber force would have no trouble destroying planned US missile defense sites in Europe, its head said Monday as the country’s security council warned of new policies to counter NATO.” The quote:
“Since the components of the anti-missile defence system are weakly protected, all types of our aircraft are capable of using electronic countermeasures against them and physically destroying them,” Interfax news agency quoted Lieutenant General Igor Khvorov as saying.
Well, of course he says that. Strategic defense, and countermeasures to it, are very much a mind game — you know, “strategic”? — and it costs Ivan nothing to put doubt into the minds of policymakers and commanders about the efficacy of a potentially devastating shift in the balance of power.
The funny part is this:
The Kremlin has fiercely protested US plans to install an anti-missile system in Poland and the Czech Republic.
I see. “It doesn’t really work. It doesn’t affect us. Thanks for wasting your money on it. Ha, what suckers. Go ahead. Make my day.
“HOW DARE YOU!”
So given that the “How dare you” is basically an admission that in fact Russia is quite upset about this deployment, and an acknowledgment that it probably affects the strategic balance after all, what exactly is the intended message? It’s the same. They’re just betting that the opposition parties in the U.S., the Democrats and the mainstream press, will do as they did during the Cold War to whoever opposed assertive defense policies: Listen to what our adversaries say and ignore what they do.
A bad bet? Not hardly at all. As things chill up with neo-czarist Russia, expect the deployment of anti-ballistic-missile technology to get more attention. Next chapter: How it harms the children.
UPDATE: And for heaven’s sake, don’t ask anyone in uniform what they think about it.
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