Bush Tries to Smooth Things Over With Putin
Posted in H.L. News, Main Blog (All Posts) on June 5th, 2007 8:00 am by HL
Bush shelters from Putin’s rhetoric
Financial Times of London
Excerpt
President George W. Bush arrived in Prague on Monday for talks about locating part of the proposed US missile defence shield in central Europe.
But Mr Bush’s most immediate concern was seeking protection from the latest in a series of rhetorical bombs lobbed by Vladimir Putin, the Russian president
Mr Putin warned on Sunday that Moscow would take “retaliatory stepsâ€, including the possible retargeting of Russian missiles against Europe, if Washington pushed ahead with plans to place radars and interceptors in the Czech Republic and Poland.
Washington insists the system is designed to protect the US and its allies against states, such as Iran, that could one day acquire nuclear weapons.
But Moscow fears the technology could be used to neutralise Russian missile capabilities and accuses the US of upsetting the balance of power in a region that once fell firmly within the Kremlin’s sphere of influence.
HLs Take
Bush: Hey Putie, don’t worry about it. We know damn well that missile shield won’t work, it’s just one more way for us to use hardworking American taxpayers dollars to funnel to our friends in the military industrial complex, with plenty of kickbacks as well. What do you say I cut you in for 5%? no? how about 10?
