December 3, 2005, Nothing personal... just business
Our visit to Pravda gives us this article discussing the latest Russian arms deal, to wit, the sale of 29 defensive "Tor" missiles to Iran, for the unequivocal purpose of deterring a possible Israeli (or... American) air strike at Iran's nuclear research facility at Bushehr... lest Israel repeat its 1981 assault (then, the exact same strike that Iran itself tried, and failed, to do) of Iraq's nuclear research facility at Osirak.
The current deal is at a pathetic $700,000,000... for such a ridiculously small sum, we risk hopelessly complicating a very dangerous situation... honestly... if our Department of Defense doesn't spend more than that every 24 hours... I'd be shocked... could help Iran defend its ability to develop those nuclear weapons against Israel... or more importantly... us.
You see, amidst all the horseshit about Saddam Hussein being aligned with terrorists and potentially giving terrorists the really nasty weapons he was developing (for our Loyalist readers who insist that the President never said these things... the source I link to is a White House press release), the reality is, Iran is already well known as an ally of terrorists (including our pals at Al Qaeda), and as we know, wants to develop a nuclear program and be able to defend it against Israeli or American air power... It would seem, then, that it was Iran that presented the compelling threat, as opposed to sanctions-contained Iraq. It's certainly possible to see why the President may have made this mistake... Iran and Iraq are spelled very similarly, are both loaded with Shiites, both have oil, and they are, of course, next to each other...
Jokes aside, as the Pravda piece makes clear, this is simply about making a ruble or two... Russia views this not as some sort of ideological advancement of the Iranian regime, but as a commercial adventure. It strikes me, then, that the complications this presents to us (assuming, as I do not, that the Bush Administration has any sense whatsoever of what presents actual strategic threats to this country)... why not simply out-bid Iran? Just tell Russia that we'll buy their missiles, as part of, I don't know, a demonstration research project or something... or better yet, we'll buy their whole operation and divert it from weapons into hybrid vehicles or toaster-ovens... as well as making good on some of our other promises to Russia, such as helping it dismantle its dangerous Soviet era nuclear weapons and ensuring their safe-keeping away from... terrorists... and places like Iran...
Just another example of our having hopelessly lost focus thanks to the Iraq adventure. We should pull our troops out as fast as humanly possible, starting yesterday, precisely so we can better assess, and ultimately deal with, threats like Iran's possible development or acquisition of nuclear weapons (and its complication of any possible response to such an event), not to mention, have enough money on hand to deal with things that way, if required.
The alternative is just madness. But that's where we're going.
Comments
Since the Nunn-Lugar deal with Russia is woefully underfunded, why would you think our esteemed geniuses at State, DOD and 1600 Pa. Ave. would go for this?
We are being led by fools (I know, I know, a new thought).
Posted by Linkmeister at December 3, 2005 8:57 PM
The United States would've bought the missiles, but the Russians balked at having to pay a $100M finder's fee to Halliburton.
Posted by Hassan Bar Sinister at December 3, 2005 10:42 PM