And we were getting along so well.
"Russia and US ‘resetting’ relations" by Bloomberg News Associated Press Associated Press, Associated Press | June 25, 2010
WASHINGTON — President Obama declared yesterday that he and President Dmitry Medvedev of Russia have “succeeded in resetting’’ the relationship between the former Cold War adversaries that had dipped to a dangerous low in recent years.
Obama directly acknowledged differences in some areas, such as Moscow’s tensions with neighboring Georgia, but said “we addressed those differences candidly.’’ And he announced that the United States and Russia had agreed to expand cooperation on intelligence and the counterterror fight and worked on strengthening economic ties between the nations.
Obama gave Russia perhaps the biggest gift it could have wanted from the meetings: an unqualified, hearty plug for Moscow’s ascension to the World Trade Organization. Russia has long wanted membership but US support in the past has come with conditions.
“Russia belongs in the WTO,’’ Obama said as the two leaders stood side-by-side in the East Room after several hours of meetings — including an impromptu trip to a burger joint for lunch.
The leaders faced questions about the US-led Afghanistan war, and Obama promised that the United States will “not miss a beat’’ because of the change in military command that he ordered on Wednesday. Obama accepted General Stanley McChrystal’s resignation and replaced him with his direct boss, General David Petraeus.
Petraeus “understands the strategy because he helped shape it,’’ Obama said.
Medvedev seemed reluctant to wade into the topic, recalling the ultimately disastrous Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.
“I try not to give pieces of advice that cannot be fulfilled,’’ Medvedev said. “This is a very hard topic, a very difficult one.’’
He said that Russia supports the US effort if it can result in Afghanistan emerging from extreme poverty and dysfunction to have “an effective state and a modern economy.’’
“This is the path to guarantee that the gravest scenarios of the last time will not repeat,’’ he said.
He means 9/11, folks.--more--"
And what good is a war without some hate?
"Russia adamantly opposed to missile defense, Gates says; But urges Senate to ratify nuclear arms proposal" by Robert Burns, Associated Press | June 18, 2010
WASHINGTON — Russia will “always hate’’ US missile defenses because it cannot match them, but that should not stand in the way of ratifying a new US-Russian nuclear arms treaty, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said yesterday.
What an asshole!
In blunt language, with the administration’s top diplomat, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, sitting beside him, Gates told a Senate panel there is little prospect of Washington and Moscow seeing eye-to-eye on missile defense.
“There is no meeting of the minds on missile defense,’’ Gates said. “The Russians hate it. They’ve hated it since the late 1960s. They will always hate it, mostly because we’ll build it and they won’t.’’
I was told there was a deal.
Testifying together, Gates and Clinton sought to calm fears voiced by Senator John McCain about the arms treaty, dubbed New START, which includes language that the Arizona Republican said could limit future US missile defense options.
Clinton noted the Russian government’s statement that it reserves the right to withdraw from the New START treaty if it feels threatened by an expansion of American defenses against ballistic missiles.
“But that is not an agreed-upon view. That is not in the treaty,’’ Clinton told the Senate Armed Services Committee. “It’s the equivalent of a press release, and we are not in any way bound by it.’’
Of course, if the Russians pull out it is a moot point.
Clinton and Gates, joined by Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Energy Secretary Steven Chu, showed a united front in the administration’s push for Senate ratification. They argued that the pact, while not perfect, enhances US security without constraining the shape of its nuclear force.
“It does not infringe upon the flexibility we need to maintain our forces, including bombers, submarines, and missiles in the way that best serves our own national security interest,’’ Clinton said.
Related: Getting Real With Russia
Gates and Mullen stressed that the treaty, if ratified, would not require the Pentagon to change the size of its nuclear arsenal for seven years. Even then, the changes would be relatively minor, he said.
For as long as seven years into the future the United States would keep 720 deployed weapons: 240 submarine-launched ballistic missiles (distributed among 14 submarines); 60 heavy bombers, and up to 420 single-warhead Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles at their current three US bases, Gates said.
And Iran can not have even one.
Mullen said military leaders feel strongly that the United States should use that seven-year interval to assess the global strategic environment before deciding how to drop to the 700-weapon limit called for in the treaty.
The arms treaty was signed in April by President Obama and President Dmitry Medvedev of Russia, who is scheduled to visit the White House next week.
Gates also spoke pointedly of Russia’s conflicting interests regarding Iran. The subject arose when Senator Scott Brown, Republican of Massachusetts, told Gates he was troubled that France and Russia, by maintaining commercial relationships with Iran, were helping it circumvent international sanctions over its nuclear program.
Related: The U.S. Senate's Chief Brownnoser to Israel
Israeli Oil Shipments Exempt From Iran Sanctions
Did that last one trouble Brown?
Senator John F. Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, also held a hearing on the treaty yesterday before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. It was the eighth hearing on the treaty in the committee, which Kerry chairs, and featured Rose Gottemoeller, assistant secretary of state.
First I've read of them -- and the last.
--more--"
"Gates: Iran Might Attack Europe With ‘Hundreds of Missiles’
In what must be among the wildest speculations of the Obama Administration, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates sought to defend a massive US missile defense system in Europe by guessing that Iran might fire “scores or even hundreds of missiles” at Europe.
So Gates has gone around the bend, 'eh?
