U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice was shocked, taken aback — according to the news reports.
Why? She should have known.
The Russians have made it clear — they’ve said so in the Conference on Disarmament, and Putin said so at a security conference in Germany last year, before saying it again yesterday before assembled journalists, Rice, and U.S. Defense Secretary Gates. They don’t like the U.S. missile defense system. They are very much opposed to it.
Putin is angry, and has said so consistently. Russia was furious when the U.S. unilaterally abrogated its bilateral treaty on Anti-Ballistic Missiles (ABM) — and the U.S. said soothingly that it was only because it didn’t reflect new realities, that the new Russia was no longer the enemy that the old Soviet Union was during the Cold War, and so on and so forth …
Then, the U.S. surprised everyone by proposing to put its Missile Defense Shield (a more realistic version of Ronald Reagan’s “Star Wars” proposal) in Eastern Europe, right on Russia’s doorstep — just like the U.S. deployed nuclear weapons in Europe during the Cold War. When Russia objected, the U.S. was surprised, shocked: So, the U.S. then proposed sharing the technology with Russia. The real target, the U.S. said, was Iran. Russia didn’t believe it for a second.
Why should anyone be surprised, then shocked, now? Unless, of course, you don’t take others seriously …
Continue reading Russia: mad with the U.S.