US News
Missile defence in Europe 'urgent,' Bush says (Roundup)
Oct 23, 2007, 19:57 GMT
U.S. President George W. Bush delivers a speech on ballistic missile defence at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C. USA 23 October 2007. President Bush urged congress to provide funding for ongoing missile defence programmes. EPA/SHAWN THEW
Washington - US President George W Bush said Tuesday there was an 'urgent' need to deploy a missile-defence system to Eastern Europe because of Iran's growing ballistic missile capability.
'Iran is pursuing the technology that could be used to produce nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles of increasing range that could deliver them,' Bush said.
'The need for missile defence in Europe is real, and I believe it's urgent,' Bush said in a speech at the National Defence University in Washington.
Bush has aggressively pursued a long-range ballistic-missile- defence system since taking office in January 2001, and announced plans earlier this year to deploy 10 missile interceptors to Poland and a radar tracking site to the Czech Republic.
The plan has become the focus of tension with Russian President Vladimir Putin that has helped bring Washington-Moscow relations to the lowest point since the end of the Cold War. Putin views the system as a threat and has not ruled out targeting the potential bases in Eastern Europe.
Bush believes Iran's increased missile technology coupled with its nuclear activities poses a threat to Europe. The United States and Russia must work together to counter the threat, Bush said.
Putin has proposed using a Soviet era radar site in Azerbaijan and a facility in southern Russia for missile defence as a substitute for the sites in Eastern Europe. Bush is open to Putin's offer, but plans to proceed with the deployment in Poland and the Czech Republic.
'We believe these sites could be included as part of a wider threat monitoring system that could lead to an unprecedented level of strategic cooperation between our two countries,' Bush said.
Bush said Iran could have a ballistic missile capable of reaching Europe by 2015 and insists placing 10 interceptors in Poland would not threaten Russia's vast nuclear arsenal.
'The missile defences we will deploy are intended to deter countries who would threaten us with ballistic missiles,' Bush said. 'We do not consider Russia such a country.'
US Defence Secretary Robert Gates was in Prague on Tuesday to meet with Czech leaders and said that negotiations were moving along at a satisfactory pace to reach a final agreement on the bases.
Gates said the United States has proposed allowing Russian officials to visit the bases to monitor their use. The United States proposed delaying the activation of the system until there is 'concrete proof' of an Iranian threat, but would proceed with the construction, he said.
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino denied that the possibility of delaying activating the system contradicted Bush's sense of urgency. She also said if it can be verified that Iran is not seeking nuclear weapons, that 'eventually' the United States 'might decide' missile defence in Europe wouldn't be necessary.
'It would be wonderful if we lived in a world where we didn't need an anti-ballistic missile programme,' she said. 'But, unfortunately, right now we think that we do.'
Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, who joined Gates in the press conference, reacted coolly to the idea in of allowing the Russian military to return to his country, saying 'no comment' when asked by a reporter.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-AgenturCOMMENT
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Older Talkback
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SP:4 For a start
Try 'Glenbeg' secret USA nuclear underground WMD'S at Glenbeg Scotland suitated within 20mls of Scotlands main city , Glasgow.
Still not on the map son.
Loch Lomand.
Inverbeg (after Balloch)
turn Left.
(M&C) - Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond has launched the party's campaign to rid the country of nuclear weapons by writing to the 189 countries signed up to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
Mr Salmond has argued for a role for Scotland as an observer in nuclear deliberations and has stated his party's objections to the replacement for Faslane
let's pray for this to end one way or the other .
dieing is easy trying to stay alive is very hard in america
the pro-american twins in poland lost power yesterday and the people of Poland have said in this election that they dont want american bases in their country.
The people in the czech republic will oust their government if they
bend over to the yanks.
Most people in europe and the rest of the world dont believe bushes threats
that iran is trying to make nukes or wmd it sounds a bit too familiar.
The boy who cried wolfowitz is at work again.
Reply to first poster: It's urgent cause the Moron-In-Chief has only 12 months left to try to screw the world even more. That's why...
(Must be distracting, having John Bolton chewing on your leg. I doubt that Putin will even go along with this modification, unless we find a way to also include the bases that Putin offered.
'American officials have spent months trying to cope diplomatically with bitter opposition to the missile defense plan from Moscow, which sees the American missile facilities as a potential threat. One Russian official even warned of aiming strategic missiles at European targets in response. Relations between the United States and Russia seemed headed for a post-Cold War low.')
www.nytimes.com/2007/10/23/washington/23cnd-missile.html?hp
WASHINGTON, Oct. 24 — Defense Secretary Robert Gates, clearly seeking to mollify Moscow, said today that the United States might delay activating its planned East European missile defense sites, even as President Bush pleaded vigorously with Congress to fully finance the sites, which he said would meet an “urgent” need for European missile defense.
Mr. Gates’s remarks, which enlarged on recent comments by other American officials, came during a news conference in Prague with Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek of the Czech Republic.
The defense secretary said that the American antimissile system might not be activated until Iran took some concrete action, such as testing its own missiles.
And we are suppose to believe him this time? There is no urgency unless the fact that there will be a new administration in a year that may be able to figure out how to tell the truth, that may be the urgency.
Me thinks the jewdumbs of Zionville are duckshoving Bush into an attack on Iran,
and the only country with the... backbone and bullets.. to stop him are the Ruskys
,so bush needs to ring-fence them in with rockets first.
After all, it was Truman, who invented the Cold War by making the USSR (i.e. Joe Stalin) jittery. The Russians then really clamped down, worried about their own security, which prompted the Unscrupulous States of America to then proclaim that they had to contain the Soviet ''threat''.
Now history repeats itself, because what worked once may work again -- but Putin is not Stalin. :o) And Europeans have become wiser as well.
Putin already threatened a new arms race, because Russia's coffers are full and the Unscrupulous States of America are bankrupt (US dollar is overvalued beyond imagination). Soon Americans will get the feel how life is, to be on the receiving side.
Let's first wait out the ass-kicking the US receives in Afghanistan and Iraq, especially after they will also have pissed off Iran (the two carrier forces are sitting ducks in the Persian Gulf).
The thought of a life without the Unnecessary States of America is rather invigorating, especially for the Third World ...
... and I get this gleam in my eyes. ;o)
To the previous poster;you have no idea how most people in the USA are ar odds with their president .Do bot forget the american people are the principal victim of this administration ,as it is their money that is being transferred to the bank accounts of the military industrial complex .Some of these corporate crooks rely entirely on the federal government for their profits;like Blackwater,Dyncorps,Raytheon and a few others .They don't even care to have a decent accountancy anymore,the money is coming in so fast that the pen pushers can handle it no more and the books are either cooked or lagging behind .Also remember Al Gore was elected as the president if it were not for the indirect voting system which offered victory to Bush .
Without the american people there is simply no solution to any problem in this world .Problem is they are being spoon fed whatever the big companies wish them to believe,thanks to the powerful grip of Rupert Murdoch on their media .How reliable is Fox networks ,after having several court cases won with the arguments that they don't even have an obligation to tell the truth ?Meanwhile California is in a state of shock due to the gigantic fires consuming lives and properties .These are unprecedented but not unforeseen .I just hope our american friends will realize that they have been led by the nose by all those claiming climate change is just a joke from the world community of scientists .
so when will they be holding bush's wake?
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SP4: C'mon!Oct 23rd, 2007 - 20:21:12
What's so goddamn urgent?????
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