A Welshman in Milano: Twinkle, twinkle, little star.....

martedì, luglio 13, 2004

Twinkle, twinkle, little star.....

A piece of news which seems to have managed to avoid publication in most of the world press concerns the US planning to build a couple of new missile defence sites - here in Europe. The intention seems to be to build a huge missile facility in Poland with another in the Czech Republic..

The negotiations with the Czech Republic and Poland have been in progress for several months now - Polish government officials claiming that the negotiations have been under way for at least the past 8 months.

These are not small facilities that the US are discussing - they are all part of a missile shield project, dubbed "Son of Star Wars", that will include long-range radar and listening facilities as well, of course, as many underground silos which will hold fully armed intercontinental missiles for the protection of the "US and her allies".

So, who are the enemy this time? Korea? China? Pakistan? every Arab country? With the demise of the Soviet Union, the traditional enemy of the USA has evaporated - but a new one has emerged to fill the gap that the USSR has left behind. But, this time there is barely an actual country that can be targeted. Of course, the battle that the US had before was with Communism - but it had a focal point - a country that could be actually targeted. Terrorism doesn't have any borders that can be defined by country. After all, several of the terrorists that were suspected of involvement with the Twin Towers atrocity in New York actually came from the UK anyway. Hardly a suitable target for US nuclear missiles - we hope!

The arms race is still with us though, even though the old "Cold War" protaganists are no longer sparring in the ring together, the war machine that drives the US must be still fed. There are further sites planned around the world for missile sites. There are the two actually in the USA - California and Alaska - with further sites under discussion in Australia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria - probably several more are in earlier stages of negotiation.

It looks like Ronnie Reagun has certainly left his mark of the planet! Lets just hope that it won't be a terminal mark!