Putin Trumps Trump
By Eric S. Margolis
March
06, 2018 "Information
Clearing House"
-
In
December, 2002, President George W. Bush
proclaimed that the US would unilaterally
pull out of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile
Treaty that had curtailed the development of
nuclear missiles and anti-missile systems to
defeat them.
The arrogant, dim-witted Bush believed that
US space technology was advancing so rapidly
that it would neutralize Russia’s force of
ICBM missiles. Bush was just a puppet. The
real power behind him was Vice President
Dick Cheney, the leading neocon who sneered
at Russia, dismissed it as a mere
‘gas-station,’ and was determined to see the
US achieve global dominance.
In Cheney’s view, the ABM Treaty was holding
the US back from this goal. Bankrupt Moscow
would never be able to stand up to the
mighty USA. Moscow warned that reneging on
the ABM Treaty would re-ignite a ruinous
arms race. A then little known politician,
Vladimir Putin, vowed that Russia would
never bend its knee to the US nuclear
colossus.
This week, President Putin stunned the world
by revealing a new arsenal of nuclear-armed
weapons that have stolen a march on
Washington and left the warlike President
Donald Trump looking foolish.
Russia’s new arms include the RS-28 heavy
ICBM, called ‘Satan 2’ by NATO. This big
brute of a liquid fueled missile can carry
up to ten nuclear warheads over 10,000 km
(6,000 miles). What makes it very different
from other ICBM’s is its ability (Russia
claims) to carry nuclear-armed hypersonic
vehicles through low earth orbit that can
attack North America from multiple
directions unseen by the radars of
anti-missile systems.
President Putin also revealed a new
nuclear-armed cruise missile propelled by a
miniature nuclear engine that can stay aloft
for very long periods and fly over Latin
America and the South Pole to attack North
America from the south. The US has been
trying to develop such a nuclear engine
since the late 1950’s, but with no success.
During the corrupt Yeltsin era, the Kremlin
accepted huge amounts of cash bribes to sell
a miniaturized reactor to the Americans
designed to power ocean surveillance
satellites.
This miniature reactor will also power
Russia’s new unmanned submarine which can
carry a very large nuclear explosive – even
up to 25 megatons – to the North American
coasts or US aircraft carrier groups.
Putin also unveiled a new hypersonic glider
deployed from space (the US and China have
been working on one, so far unsuccessfully),
and an aircraft launched Mach-10 missile
called ‘Kinzhal’ after the deadly dagger
carried by Caucasian mountaineers. And, on
top of this, a combat laser system that is
being deployed. The US has been working on
one since the Vietnam War.
Never Miss Another Story |
All
this is a bombshell. Maybe Putin was
boasting and exaggerating, but he usually
tells the truth, unlike our politicians, and
rarely embellishes. As he said in his
speech, ‘nobody wanted to listen to us,’
referring to Moscow’s failed attempted to
restore a strategic arms agreement, cut
nuclear forces and lower tensions with the
West. ‘Now,’ said Putin, ‘you listen.’
But will Washington listen? Trump has just
announced a huge modernization of America’s
nuclear forces and a big increase in the
military budget from $634 billion to $716
billion, with an additional $69 billion to
fund ‘foreign wars.’ The real US military
budget is close to $1 trillion (that’s 1,000
billion), not including the US intelligence
budget which is larger that Russia’s entire
annual defense budget, a meager $42.3
billion.
Washington’s war party has convinced itself
that Russia can be intimidated and once
again spent into the ground. But Vladimir
Putin is too smart and deft to allow this to
happen. He has neatly trumped Trump’s arms
buildup and shown up Trump’s empty bullying.
So, for that mater, has North Korea’s Kim
Jong-un.
One hopes Washington’s deep government that
has been promoting a run-up to war with
Russia in the Mideast, Ukraine, Baltic and
Black Sea will be sufficiently sobered by
Putin’s show this week. They should be. The
multiple warheads on one new RS-28 missile
could destroy Texas or France. Russia’s new
missiles and space gliders can outflank
America’s anti-missile radars in Alaska and
Romania, rendering them as useless as
France’s Maginot Line.
War must never, ever be allowed to occur
with Russia and China and the United States.
Will we risk the life of the planet over a
stupid quarrel over some one-tractor town in
Ukraine or a Syrian village no one has ever
heard of? Yes, if the neocons have their
way.
Eric S. Margolis is an award-winning,
internationally syndicated columnist. His
articles have appeared in the New York
Times, the International Herald Tribune the
Los Angeles Times, Times of London, the Gulf
Times, the Khaleej Times, Nation – Pakistan,
Hurriyet, – Turkey, Sun Times Malaysia and
other news sites in Asia.
https://ericmargolis.com
Copyright Eric S. Margolis 2018
The views and opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of Information Clearing House.
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