White House finally gets something right

[mawilson 2,133]

It has oil, but we're not drilling it.

The first foreign exploration operation was set up just recently. It's Chinese.

I thought it was BP as well as China's CNPC?

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

China has started pumping already, I believe.

[mawilson 2,133]

China has started pumping already, I believe.

To be honest, it doesn't matter who's pumping. Oil is a global commodity. A barrel extracted

by a Chinese company is a barrel China won't buy from Venezuela.

[Peikko 1,575]

For a system designed to protect the country from nuclear oblivion, the US national missile defence project's history of failure has long raised eyebrows among scientists.

Years of testing have seen rocket-propelled interceptors refuse to launch from their silos, fail to separate from their boosters and miss their targets, sometimes by hundreds of miles.

Military officials can claim only a 50% hit rate, and only then in tests that are far removed from a real world attack scenario, said David Wright, a physicist and co-director of global security at the Union of Concerned Scientists in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Some tests were delayed for months because the weather was not considered good enough for the interceptor to find its target.

When tests did go ahead, missile operators knew when the target would be launched and its trajectory in the sky. The missile system that was due to be installed in Europe had undergone even less rigorous testing. The plans included a two-stage interceptor which has yet to even begin flight tests.

The radar intended to be installed in the Czech Republic has been used in tests to track targets from its base in the Kwajalein atoll in the Pacific Ocean. Technical studies by scientists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology show that Pentagon estimates of the radar's ability to detect incoming missiles from Iran were out by a factor of 100. The missiles would have produced too small a radar signature to be spotted in time.

Wright said it was reasonable to assume Iran would be capable of confounding interceptor missiles that rely on heat-seeking infra-red sensors to home in on their targets. "They will definitely be motivated to work on counter-measures and they could defeat the interceptor's sensors," he said.

"When people say how well the system works, the truth is it is impossible to know how well it will work because there's no realistic data," Wright added.

Twenty leading scientists, including 10 Nobel laureates, wrote to President Obama in July to urge the administration to reconsider the European phase of the missile defence system.

"The planned European missile defence system would have essentially no capability to defend against a real missile attack. Independent and US governmental technical analyses have shown that any country that could field a long-range missile could also add decoys and other counter-measures to that missile that would defeat a defence system like that being proposed for Europe," the letter stated.

The Obama administration's revised plan will use the Aegis ship-based weapons system, which could launch SM-3 interceptor missiles from the Mediterranean sea. The system is scheduled to be deployed in 2011.

Link

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

In other words - its would be a multi-billion dollar scarecrow.

Edited September 17, 2009 by Private Pike

[mawilson 2,133]

In other words - its would be a multi-billion dollar scarecrow.

If it's so useless, why is Russia up in arms over it?

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Because its a provocative action

[mawilson 2,133]

I suppose it is.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Just had to stop in and congratulate Danno on finding two things the Obama administration did right in as many weeks. Way to go, man!

[Danno 1,228]

Uh, actually Danno, the US of A is not the only country concerned with this, I know Ukraine is and many other former Soviet countries, they would much rather have democracy and USA as ally than Russia.

Sure Danno Russia will try to return the favor, but why now, why have they not been doing it until Putin came on the scene, hello wake up, it is Militant state run by former KGB now, and everything Russia does now is just like during cold war. And they are now testing and pushing to see just how far they can go before anyone marks a line in the sand and dares them to cross it.

And you say Russia has paid a heavy price by letting enemies get too close and form a ring? Curious when was the USA their enemy I thought the Russia you speak of was the USA friends, but now you prove me right and now you see why it is even more important to stop Russia's advances head on, which can and should be and why we need a missile shield now more than ever. WHAT ABOUT THE HEAVY PRICE ALL THE FORMER RUSSIAN SOVIET COUNTRIES PAID BECAUSE OF MOTHER RUSSIA???? Do you know how many millions Stalin had killed, his own countrymen and women not to mention the millions he deliberately starved to death in Ukraine! I guess Russian history tellers failed to mention what they did to these countries close to Russia, they just invaded them all after WW2(Great Patriot War) and used them as serf states and as buffer countries of real estate to protect against an invasion of Mother Russia, like they ever give a damn about any of the countries they so brutally ruled for those 45 years! Make me puke, Russia should have left all those countries after WW2, and went to their own borders but no, not so. You ever visit Poland and ask them what they think of Russkies? It bothers them I can tell you and they border Russia.

You think you would rather support USSR rather than USA, interesting Danno. You are letting your Russian feelings cloud your judgment here. Why do you think Russia should be allowed to give nuclear weapons to admitted enemies of the USA? Why is that ok with you? AND I can and will blame Russia if they arm Chavez and there will be a dear price to pay.

Ok let me see, Russia you think is ok to arm Iran and now Venezuela? Ok then it is perfectly ok for USA to arm any former soviet country ally of USA don't you think? I see you think it is ok for USA to pull out and turn tail but not for Russia? Why is that?

It is the USA business and Russia is making it our business when they play games with natural gas and other resources or when they invade innocent countries like Georgia or when they threaten democracies or the USA with sending arms to our own back yard as Medved says. Only the strong survive in dealing with Russia, not the weak like Ovomit.

Somewhere in all this I think you have a point, boil it down to one paragraph and I'll be glad to respond.

[Danno 1,228]

Just had to stop in and congratulate Danno on finding two things the Obama administration did right in as many weeks. Way to go, man!

Yeah no kidding.

By this time next year, I might pull my "F off Obama" bumpersticker.

[HAL 9000 96]

BS! We need a two pronged attack here Ma! Stay the course set by Bush, invade Afghanistan with more troops and turn up the heat, and that is also where we find Bin Laden, I want his head on a stake!

Well, it's a waste of money. We don't need ground troops in Afghanistan. If there are terrorist camps,

bomb them from the air. If there is a terrorist in a village, wipe the village off the map.

Kill em all. More points that way.

[jwk2003 3]

If we don't want Russia putting Missile sites around our Country... we shouldn't put them around theirs.

U.S. scraps missile defense shield plans

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Obama administration will scrap the controversial missile defense shield program in Eastern Europe, a senior administration official confirmed to CNN Thursday.

The U.S. has been testing the ability of ground-based interceptor missiles to hit long-range ballistic missiles.

The comment followed similar statements from officials in Poland and the Czech Republic -- where key elements of the system were to be located -- but was the first confirmation from an American official.

Vice President Joe Biden earlier refused to confirm to CNN that the George W. Bush-era plan was being shelved.

But he did explain the logic of doing so, saying Iran -- a key concern for the United States -- was not a threat.

"I think we are fully capable and secure dealing with any present or future potential Iranian threat," he told CNN's Chris Lawrence in Baghdad, where he is on a brief trip.

"The whole purpose of this exercise we are undertaking is to diminish the prospect of the Iranians destabilizing that region in the world. I am less concerned -- much less concerned -- about the Iranian potential. They have no potential at this moment, they have no capacity to launch a missile at the United States of America," he said.

Biden said he is "deeply" involved in the review of the missile defense program. See how the system would work » | See a map of the proposed sites »

The Bush administration had cited the perceived nuclear threat from Iran as one of the key reasons it wanted to install the missile shield in eastern Europe.

The U.S. reversal is likely to please Russia, which had fiercely opposed the plans.

Is the U.S. right to scrap plans for a missile defense shield in Europe? Sound Off below

A U.S. delegation held high-level meetings Thursday in both Poland and the Czech Republic to discuss the missile defense system. While the outcome of the meetings wasn't clear, officials in both countries confirmed the system would be scrapped.

Czech Prime minister Jan Fischer said in a statement that U.S. President Barack Obama told him in a Wednesday phone call that the United States was shelving its plans. Fischer did not say what reason Obama gave him for reconsidering.

A spokeswoman at the Polish Ministry of Defense also said the program had been suspended.

"This is catastrophic for Poland," said the spokeswoman, who declined to be named in line with ministry policy.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Gen. James E. Cartwright, who is vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, are scheduled to hold a news conference Thursday morning. The Defense Department has not announced what will be discussed, but Cartwright is the point man for the missile defense shield program.

Poland and the Czech Republic had based much of their future security policy on getting the missile defenses from the United States. The countries share deep concerns of a future military threat from the east -- namely, Russia -- and may now look for other defense assurances from their NATO allies.

"At the NATO summit in April, we adopted a resolution focusing on building a defense system against real, existing threats, i.e. short-range and medium-range missiles," Fischer said. "We expect that the United States will continue cooperating with the Czech Republic on concluding the relevant agreements on our mutual (research and development) and military collaboration, including the financing of specific projects."

By contrast, Russia may view the move as a diplomatic victory after complaining about the program consistently for years.

There was no comment Thursday morning from Russian officials. But the issue has been a sore point in relations between Washington and Moscow, with Russia believing the shield would ultimately erode its own strategic nuclear deterrent.

With the program scrapped, it opens the way for Russia to join with the United States in taking a harder line on Iran, CNN Correspondent Matthew Chance reported from Moscow.

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The United States proposed the plans under then-President George W. Bush, but since taking over this year, the Obama administration has been reviewing whether to move ahead with them.

The missile shield issue came up in July during a meeting between Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Moscow. Obama maintained that Russia had nothing to fear from such a system, which would be designed to intercept a solitary missile from Iran or North Korea, as opposed to "a mighty Russian arsenal."

lol, introducing politics to visajourney

[Joseph & Ana 0]

Actually Poland and the Czech Republic are P@#!ed.

[Danno 1,228]

Actually Poland and the Czech Republic are P@#!ed.

And as both them and Russia are IN europe.... lets leave their problems to them, we have enough on our plate to manage and pay for right here.

If 500 million Europeans can't handle 150 millions Russian, not much we can.. of should do to help.