Didn't know anything about Putins warning until I caught the headlines of the Times and Telegraph this morning whilst dropping them outside people doors. Read the interview with interest, and it's classic Cold War stuff he's saying, if someone spots something wrong within Russia, he points to a similar thing within the EU or the US and accuses the West of hypocrisy. It's a tried and tested tactic...
I find it interesting that he says he will target missiles on Europe when, to be perfectly honest, I'd be incredibly surprised if they were not targetted on Europe, or have had their targetting systems pointed elsewhere for the past sixty years! Certainly the nukes in the Western silos and mobile launchers, oh, and the Northern Fleet. The Pacific fleet will no doubt have Beijing on their autodial as well as Seattle, San Fran, etc.
The nuclear forces of Russia are probably the forces in the best shape I should imagine, although if current figures are to be believed (and I personally don't believe them), only just over half of their missiles are currently servicable.
I agree with Skybird though, plonking a load of ABM stuff in former WP territory is asking for trouble, I mean, there's supporting former Eastern Bloc countries, and then there's using them to piss off Russia in the guise of defending from Iran. Put the ABM in Greece and Italy, you can stick the radar in South Poland, and maybe another radar in Greece...it should have enough range. Hell, you could even try to work with Russia to put in place this system, instead of just saying "Yeah, I'm gonna stick this system here in your back porch, sorry about the noise and the E-fields."
Admittedly Russia would probably tell you where to go, but at least the offer would have been on the table.
Yes...it does look like a second Cold War is on the table, doesn't it?
Wonder if ebay has any of the old 'Protect and Survive' leaflets on it... :hmm:
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