Wednesday, July 22, 2009
"Outmaneuvering Obama: Russia's Crafty Weapons Cuts"
Trading something for nothing?
We're seeing a lot of that lately.
Usually, it's our money.
Here it's our security...
We're seeing a lot of that lately.
Usually, it's our money.
Here it's our security...
Ed Feulner writes about it at Townhall.com:
"Obama has promised that the U.S. will reduce its number of strategic force launchers --the systems that deliver both nuclear and conventional weapons -- to between 500 and 1,100 (the U.S. is permitted 1,600 launchers under a current treaty). Moscow matched that commitment, but that’s not saying much, since the number of Russian weapons is going to plummet with or without a treaty.
'By 2017-2018 Russia will likely have fewer than half of the approximately 680 operational launchers it has today,' arms control expert Keith Payne recently testified before Congress. 'With a gross domestic product less than that of California, Russia is confronting the dilemma of how to maintain parity with the U.S. while retiring its many aged strategic forces.' One way, of course, is to sacrifice some pawns -- the non-existent or inoperable weapons -- to take out vital American weapons.
In short, the Russians agreed to 'cut' weapons they were going to have to retire anyway.
The Russians haven’t made their declining stockpiles much of a secret. Payne notes that Nikolay Solovtsov, the man in charge of Russian missiles, recently told Moscow Interfax-AVN Online that 'not a single Russian launcher' with 'remaining service life' would be withdrawn under the agreement reached with Russian leaders."
