Les Jones

I’m feeling feisty tonight while I wait for servers to reboot!

I’ll have to respectfully disagree in this instance with your assertion that Obama is negotiating from a weaker position. Medvedev may be a puppet of Putin’s but Russia is currently in a more serious crisis than what we’re staring down.

Between the collapse in oil prices and the inherent instability of the ruble (it’s dropped nearly as hard as crude prices!) Russia has a greater need to fill from us rather than Iran.

Iran doesn’t have a financial system like ours (not saying much at the moment though *rimshot*) and as it stands the best they could do would be to commisserate amongst each other to plan what they’d each do with $100M. Not that they actually have that or anything.

With OPEC practically falling apart (with Iran & Venezuela not minding their quotas) and what would appear to be a floor on crude prices (around $40/bbl) both Iran & Russia are staring down the barrel of significant shortcomings on promised “social reforms” to their citizens.

Granted, this doesn’t necessarily imply they wouldn’t do what we’ve expected them to do (boot heel and all that) but there still is some visibility on the global stage.

Anyway - enjoy!

TinMan

Forgot to actually respond to the published article!

The missile shield to ‘protect’ Europe is one of the last vestiages of the battle in yesterday’s international politics.

No longer do we have to worry about Soviet tanks rolling across eastern Europe blitzkrieg fashion straight into Germany & France. Yes we still have Russia as the “bear” of the world with access to a nuclear arsenal but somehow I think our comrades have grown to appreciate what capitalism can bring to a country.

Now, to assert that there’s an unstable presence in the Middle East or on the east coast of Asia where both have ‘access’ to nuclear capability that’s not too much of a stretch.

But you then have to ask where would a “shield” be better installed considering those threats? It would look to me to have one between Iraq & Iran specifically covering the port facilities in southern Iraq. The other should be on the northern shore of Japan or even on the southern tip of S. Korea.

So why don’t we hear about those as options?

G’night!
TinMan

I would point out that the missile shield we were considering installing in Eastern Europe was not going to be just looking at the old USSR-bloc states… I mean, face it - a few tens of missiles against a few thousands of warheads? Yeah, not so useful there. But when you consider the number of rogue states who are developing nuclear arsenals (*cough*Iran*cough*), well, the utility becomes that much more apparent.

As for the Pacific theater, I suggest you look up the Navy’s Ballistic Missile Defense program.

However, while the missile shield would not be terribly useful against an all-out assault from the Ruskies, it would be useful if any of the stupid generals that Putin no longer has control over goes and does something… well… stupid. And let us take bets as to which possibility is more likely.

In any case, giving away a piece of defensive capability over the nebulous, ineffective, and pointless hope that Iran will stand down from their headlong dive into the realm of nuclear weapons is just plain stupid, no matter how you cut it. We are giving up something for hope… oh, wait, that is pretty much Obama’s MO these days.

Bloody great.

Linoge´s last blog post..man with the copper bullet