The New but Misguided "partnership" between the U.S. and Russia

July 9, 2009
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The New but Misguided "partnership" between the U.S. and Russia

A rather unexpected turn of events has occured in regards to U.S. and Russian policies and positions on Missile Defense in Europe and in the Region, reports Jim Wolf in his article, U.S. seeks "full partnership" with Russia on missiles (see below).

The head of the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency, Army Lieutenant General Patrick O'Reilly said, "The (new) approach is to lay out ideas, and not to have a fully developed plan. You need to move foward at a prudent pace so that there are collaborative decisions, intermediate decisions made along the way, so that there is true partnership."

Wolf says, Obama, during the two-day visit to Russia this week, called for a fresh era in bilateral security ties focusing on mutual interests. He and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev agreed to pursue a plan, first floated in the 1990's to open a joint early-warning center to monitor launches worldwide.

Too, O'Reilly said he had not received any orders "to deviate" from expanding U.S. missile defense into Poland and the Czech Republic,
an idea Moscow calls a threat to Russian security.

This new plan came about as the two Presidents worked on an agreement to cut nuclear weapons and consider missile defense in Europe. Working together "in partnership" is a far cry to the early statements issued forth by Micheal McFaul, special assistant to the
president for National Security Affairs.

McFaul said, " We're not going to reassure or give or trade anything with the Russians regarding NATO's expansion or missile defense." Fortunately that very hard-line approach was not taken up by President Barack Obama, who chose instead to table the discussion on missile defense for another time. Obama's intelligent "tabling" of the missile defense issue allowed President Medvedev to go along with the
nuclear weapons reduction agreement despite his earlier admonishion that he would not do so unless the U.S. stopped the missile defense plan
completely. Now. with the use of diplomacy and cooperation, they are speaking of "partnership".

However, to open a joint early-warning center to monitor launches worldwide is a freightening prospect. Not only would it cost both nations,
and probably other nations as well, billions and billions of dollars, it would give the two mightiest nuclear powers on earth more power and dominance than ever before in history.

As the Buddha has said, "The real and lasting victories are those of peace, and not of war",

Real. long-term, victories come from peace-making and not of war-making. Instead of a world-wide missile defense system we need a world-wide
diplomacy network including as many nations as possible to contribute their wisdom and resources in order for people to understand and respect one another. Once that occurs then mutual cooperation, negotiations, mediations, resolutions and agreements can take place to smooth over troubled differences between peoples and make peaceful settlements that would have a chance forlong time.success.

More military weapons and counter-weapons, as missile defensive systems are designed for, would increase tensions and anxieties for millions of people worldwide in the future.We need less tension not more, a time for security so that people can recover from the past - especially the recent past with all the wars and violence still occurring- and begin to recover and reconstruct their countries and themselves from all the trauma, hurts and pain incurred from worldwide violence.

To assure people of their national security and some peace of mind we need to stress disarmament as a key to peacemaking. In some of the statements in the articles sited below disarmament is mentioned along with the strengthening of defense. The argument sort of goes that if nations still have mass weapons then we need to defend ourselves against their possible threats. At the same time we need to disarm is uttered but little reall effort is generated in actually making that happen in the U.S. or many other countries. Instead military budgets continue to escalate and peacemaking budgets (???) are hardly considered.

In all fairness to the Obama administration the deployment of a dozen envoys in troubled countries of the world, under the auspices of the Secretary of State, Hillary R. Clinton, is a bold and progressive development. The State Department has many thousands of people on staff, many who could be placed in countries around the world (probably best in teams) to help foster diplomacy and conflict-resolution, foster ways of helping those in need with resources from many countries; create a worldwide resource network that can be drawn upon by diplomats and negotiators as needed... We need creative ideas rather than more weapons that stymie creativity and innovation, increase tensions and sometimes lead to more violence and war-making.

So, as we applaud the current nuclear reduction agreement because it gives us some sense of security and the hope for better relations between the U.S. and Soviet Union (though the reductions of nuclear weapons are small in numbers), and feel relieved that the missile defense system in Europe is probably "off the table", let us take a deep breath and consider the implications of an expansion of military might as a worldwide defense system and the increased unchecked power and difficulties it would bring.... and work and lobby for an expanded diplomatic negotiating force around the world, composed of dedicated people from many nations.....

let us give peace a chance while opposing the joint early warning center to monitor missile launches worldwide.

Arn Specter, Phila.
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Current News:
Video and Article on Missile Defense in Europe and Future Partnership between the U.S. and Russia

Thursday, July 9, 2009 , Video from Yahoo!

arn specter (arnpeace@yahoo.com) has sent you a video.
Future of Missile Defense in Europe, US and Russia

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Article: U.S. seeks "full partnership" with Russia on missiles by Jim Wolf, Reuters, July 9, 2009

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"The real and lasting victories are those of peace, and not of war", said The Buddha.
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