The purported Missile shield that US is trying to put in place in Europe for teh so called "protection" of allies in Europe is facing stiff opposition from the Cold-War era arch enemy - Russia.
Let us analyze what is going on. As a layman, it is difficult to understand the intricacies of World Politics which is at play here. So we need to break down the details of the reasonsing provided by the two parties (those who support and those who oppose)
Reason for Supporting the shield
The main reason given is that the rouge states can send missiles to all nations and to US and that in order to effectively stop these missiles before they can reach any closer to their target, they need to have a radar and counter missile system that can identify and destroy the missiles sent by these rouge states. It is an early warning system which will enable US to spot and destroy missiles from the rouge states directed towards Europe and US. A very novel thought indeed. Directed to maintaining peace in the world.
Reason for Opposing the shield
The main & sole opposition party is Russia. Russia believes that the shield is just a ploy for the US to place missiles and US military radars next to Russian borders and thus enable US to have more control on the region. US can aim missiles at Russia to keep it in check and also spy on Russia using the sophisticated radars. Russia maintains that the rouge states do not have the capability of hitting far off targets like US & Europe. So placing the radar system in east Europe makes no sense.
Though the US maintains that the radars will only look for missiles from rouge states and that the interceptors will not be armed (just rockets that will hit the rouge state missiles), Russia is not convinced of its need. Russia has put forward its own deal....allow Russian personnel full access to the sites at all time, which understanably US is not happy about.
Rouge States
The list of Rouge states have been steadily decreasing. It started off with Afghanistan , Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea and Pakistan. Later after 9/11, Pakistan was removed form the list as it helped US overthrow Taliban in Afghanistan and is still helping US to wipe out terrorism from that region Taliban & Al Queda from Afghanistan. Afghanistan was rid of Taliban and so it too was removed form the list. Later Iraq was invaded and occupied, thus removing Iraq form the list too. Diplomacy ruled the removal of Libiya and North Korea form that list. That leaves only Iran as the lone survivor as Rouge State.
This week, Iran tested its missiles which had short range. Their missiles can at the most, hit deep inside Iraq and maybe able to reach Israel. But reaching Europe.....is a far fetched idea for Iran.
My view:
As of now, the shields are not required, as only one "rouge state" can "dream" of hitting US & Europe with long range missiles. Yes, they can only dream of it now and my never be able to develop the technology. Yet, if US wants to build the shield for protection against missiles from rouge states (Iran), as it insists now, then why not allow Russian personnel full and complete access to the sites. After all they will only be concentrating on the rouge states. It appears that US wants to have full and sole control of these facilities and that raises more questions and understandably specially in Russian minds. It is possible that as Russians fear, the radar & "shield" will be used by US only to get a better grip over the whole world, to maintain the status of the sole superpower of the world. This is the World Politics at play.
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