Russia will help Cuba modernize its aging military equipment?

Take your meds.

Russia will help Cuba modernize its aging military equipment and provide training to the country’s military personnel, according to Chief of Russia’s General Staff Nikolai Makarov on Sept. 18.

Probably plotting with chavez to get their marxist buddy Zelya back in power.

Off subject, but it had to be said.

First, Stephen very correctly asked what the Czechs or Poles have done to irritate the Iranians. Why would Iran point a missile at central Europe? They would not! They have plenty of closer targets — just think what a problem it was for the allies during the first Gulf War, when Iraq fired few inaccurate Scuds at Israel! By Iran just firing missiles in the direcion of Tel Aviv, even if they feel short and hit Amman, they would be heroes. Until the day that the Iranians develop a hatred of Latvia, central Europe is safe from them.

So then what was the purpose of anti-missiles in Poland? No one ever figured that out. Missiles launched from Russia towards the US would go the other way, over the North Pole. An anti-missile site in Poland would be great if Russia ever launches missiles against Monaco, I guess.

And those anti-missiles were designed to be high altitude interceptors. Iran is not gonna launch any wire guided Saggers against Luxemburg. Any missile going over 1000 km is a ballistic missile all right, we could argue over the definition of InterContinental.

Another point — Turkey has welcomed lots of American hardware and people for decades. Places such as Dyabakir which is an ancient Kurdish city. If they wanted to keep us from seeing how they treat the Kurds, they would restrict us to western Turkey.

So we are left with the realisation that George Bush liked anti-missile systems and was gonna put one in central Europe somewhere. He should have concentrated on getting C-17s into Hungary — a move that will certainly pay off right away! He should have concentrated on getting The Ukraine into NATO, so the Polish F-16s would have some Ukrainian bases to fly out of. In case they wanted to fly top cover for Georgia!

Sorry for the length of the reply.

Yes, it turns out we are not actually talking about intercepting ICBMS here (try reading the article), but congratulations for being completely off-target and managing take my comments completely out of context.

For starters you dont need an INTER-CONTINENTAL ballistic missile when your target is less that 3000km away.

Ideally we would put our missile shields in turkey, but we all know how little the turks appreciate having american military hardware in their territory.

That leaves two choices, putting naval units fitted with intercept missiles under the flight path, and putting silos in mainland europe and making sure you have a good enough radar to detect launches early so you can still intercept them about halfway somewhere above the black sea.

Guess what, we are doing BOTH of those things. In addition to that, your great wisdom of putting interceptors under the flightpath would put the ideal intercepter locations in.……EUROPE!!!

He says: “The reason why we are building a missile shield in Europe is that because thats where all the missiles are going to be headed” but where have been/are US missile defenses? Our SafeGuard system was in Concrete, North Dakota! The current system is in deep Alaska. You put missile defense systems, for ICBM type threats, under the flight path not anywhere near the targets!

A missile defense system in Europe would theoretically defend other areas — and could partly defend European territory.

Now that particular deployment is one that I have never understood or supported, so I can’t argue the logic of that one. I am quite happy to see it deleted and hope to see some money diverted to refreshing more immediately useful systems. Hope spring eternal.

Thats how alliances work. We allow you to use our turf and let you take us on magical-but-ultimately-pointless middle eastern adventures whilst you assure us that you’ll stick up for us if the russians decide to pick up some extra real estate.

The reason why we are building a missile shield in Europe is that because thats where all the missiles are going to be headed. It’s not like Iran has a missile that can reach anywhere near mainland USA.

If it helps you sleep at night, if things ever really go nuclear it’s going to be Europe that gets turned into glass, not you guys, so quit yer yammerin.

Plus you guys still have to make up for the fact that you actually re-elected the guy that doesnt even know how to eat a friggin pretzel (insert in mouth, chew throughly, swallow), so at the very least you can help us avoid nuclear annihilation at the hands of some islamic extremists.

No f22 to japan and austrailia either while Barry bows to Chavez, amadinajahd,Puti. The pattern is certain. No enemies on the left. He listened closely in j wrights is of kka church alright.

For some reason they want diplomacy with acountry that is preparing for armageddon.

Not counting the commitment and cost of personnel.

Accumulative cost? Close to a trillion?

I vote that we just give Israel a hand in destroying all military targets in Iran.

I think it would not only be cheaper but send a much better message to the world.

Yes, I know Obama wouldn’t do it, but maybe his replacement would. He is not going to last four years.

Papa Ray
West Texas

If our intelligence is wrong and Iran surprises us with a true ICBM, then we will have exactly the wrong missiles to defend Europe for many years. We’ll have easy to deploy Navy ships unable to catch up to an ICBM or easy to deploy Thaad also unable to match the speed of a ICBM.
His decision does reveal Obama’s character as a statesmen. It shows Russia, China, Iran, North Korea and others that vocal defiance will back down Obama. Is that good for the US and its friends?

Having said this, in a way I’m happy with this decision. European public opinion is against our GBI’s in Europe, especially Polish and Czech public opinion. So they get what they wanted.

Furthermore, there are locations in Turkey and Israel in conjunction with sea based systems parked outside Iran.

The Russian’s are always going to be a pain in the ass, but choosing your battles carefully is the key to dealing with them effectively… instead of dragging yourself into a whole regional spat by granting Georgia and Ukraine Nato membership.

As for the GMD system being highly unproven, since THAAD and PAC3 can’t do the mission that it was intended for, it is an apples to oranges comparison. One has the potential to shoot down ICBMs, the other one doesn’t.