Ivo Daalder, the U.S. Permanent
Representative to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), last week
seemed to be in a state of denial or ignorance when discussing a planned U.S.-led
ballistic missile defense system’s effect on Russia. His position should be of
particular concern to Americans, because implementing such a system grinds us
directly into another cold war, if not a hot one. And it also directly affects America’s massive
and growing deficit, which will plague our children and generations beyond.
In speaking at a gathering of
the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington
last Monday, Daalder said that Moscow was wary
of the proposed missile defense system, and even wanted legal assurances the
system wouldn’t threaten Russia.
Daalder said that the missile
system’s placement “doesn’t concern Russia”
because its sights will be on the Middle East, which must mean Iran and Syria. Although Daalder didn’t
mention those two countries specifically, the U.S. Defense Department in a May
3 briefing in Moscow
did:
“Shorter-range threats within
key regions are growing rapidly: Iran, Syria, and North Korea possess 1000s of
short-and medium-range missiles, potentially threatening to U.S. forces, allies,
and partners,” the PowerPoint briefing said in its opening point “Ballistic
Missile Threat Continues to Advance.” Yet the briefing also said, while the U.S. will provide missile defense to protect
itself and its European partners, the defense system isn’t aimed at Russia.
Here’s the problem with that
rationale: for a long time, Russia
has aligned itself with Iran.
At one point, while visiting Iran along with other Middle-East countries’ reps—to
discuss their mutual relationship regarding natural gas supplies and
distribution—Russian President Vladimir Putin and the other nations agreed that
an attack on any one of their natural-gas alliance members, including Iran,
would be an attack on all of them.
More recently, in January 2012,
Dmitry Rogozin, Russia’s
deputy prime minister and former envoy to NATO, said, “Iran
is our close neighbor, just south of the Caucasus.
Should anything happen to Iran,
should Iran
get drawn into any political or military hardships, this will be a direct
threat to our national security.”
So, are Daalder,
who represents the Obama administration and our country, and the Defense
Department really not aware of these threatening goings-on? Are they in denial
about Russia’s
position? Or do they think America’s
citizens who heard his question-answer session last Monday aren’t smart enough
to catch the administration’s untruth, or can’t connect the dots between Russia and Iran’s relationship?
Daalder also told
the Washington
crowd that NATO is made up of 28 countries and is a Democratic organization in
which each nation has a voice and vote in determining NATO policy and actions.
To anyone who
understands money and power, that stance is hard to swallow. NATO receives
funding from each of the nations, but four of those countries—the United States, United
Kingdom, Germany
and France—provide
60% of the funds. The U.S.
contributes nearly 22%. Do you really think those major funders don’t decide
the directions NATO takes?
We’ll get a
clearer view of that later this month, when NATO holds its 25th
summit in Chicago
May 20-21. The agenda will include Afghanistan’s future. Also, the
media is speculating that France’s
new socialist president Francois Hollande may want to pull his country out of
NATO. That would mean a loss of 12% of NATO’s funding. If that happens, who do
you suspect NATO would eye to make up that deficit, and increase ours?
Ivo Daalder Q&A: http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/Stepsfo
Funding NATO: http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/topics_67655.htm
U.S. Ballistic Missile
Defense briefing: http://photos.state.gov/libraries/russia/231771/PDFs/U_S_%20Ballistic%20Missile%20Defense%20Briefing%20ENG.pdf
Russia-Iran
alliance: http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/01/russia-should-anything-happen-to-iran-this-will-be-a-direct-threat-to-our-national-security.html
NATO Summit in Chicago: http://www.nato.int/cps/en/SID-18E5B832-418B2ED0/natolive/news_87077.htm
Ivo Daalder: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivo_Daalder
An untenable position by the US. Thanks for the awareness though it is distressing.
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