US uses carrot and big stick over Star Wars

by Rob Gowland

As members of the US Congress waxed eloquent and wrathful over refusing 
economic aid to Russia — whose leaders were accused of money laundering, 
corruption, looting the national coffers and asset stripping — the US 
administration was holding out the carrot of just such economic aid.

But the US leaders wanted something in return: Russian agreement to an 
exemption for the US from some of the provisions of the anti-ballistic 
missile (ABM) treaty of 1972, so they can proceed with a so-called theatre-
based missile defence system, a key element in the new Star Wars plan.

Although the US ludicrously claims the proposed missile defence system is 
intended to protect the continental USA from attack by the "rogue states" —
usually identified as Iraq, Iran and North Korea — Russian defence 
chiefs are not fooled: the intention is clearly to set in place a system 
that would nullify any Russian (or Chinese) defensive response to a US 
space-based or ICBM (Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile) attack on Russia 
or China.

The US is even considering moving its primary battle-management radar 
system from North Dakota to Alaska (at prodigious cost).

A new phased-array radar installation in Alaska would give improved 
simultaneous coverage of both Russia and China for US nuclear war fighting. 
Siting these radar systems anywhere on the periphery of Russia or the US is 
banned under the ABM treaty.

By abandoning the ABM treaty, which the US used to claim was the 
cornerstone of nuclear arms reduction, and by making its intended target so 
obvious, the US proposal dramatically intensifies the nuclear arms race.

At the same time, the amended Star Wars program represents a mind-boggling 
bonanza for US defence and aerospace contractors.

While a shrill campaign unfolded on Capitol Hill against Russian leaders 
allegedly involved in money laundering huge amounts through a New York 
bank, the White House was running a shuttle service of diplomats to the 
Kremlin to pressure Boris Yeltsin and his advisers over the ABM treaty.

First off was the Deputy Secretary of State, Strobe Talbott. The Russians 
clearly had no illusions about his reason for coming: a few days before he 
arrived they staged a successful firing of the latest Topol-M ICBM at a 
target in eastern Siberia.

Then Clinton himself rang Yeltsin to bend his ear for an hour over money 
laundering and the ABM treaty.

A few days later, it was the turn of US Defence Secretary, William Cohen, 
to go to Moscow for more talks on defence matters. Clinton weighed in again 
when he held talks with the latest Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, 
at the Asia-Pacific summit.

Yeltsin has succumbed to this kind of pressure in the past and may well do 
so again. But the Russian military and Parliament are not falling for it at 
this stage. However, they are already preparing counter measures in the 
expectation that the US will probably abrogate the ABM treaty anyway.

Colonel-General Vladimir Yakovlev, the commander of Russia's Strategic 
Rocket Forces, told a press conference that these counter measures included 
"the option of giving the intercontinental Topol-M missiles independently 
targetable warheads".

And a scientist from the team making the Topol-M missile said they had "a 
number of technical options for breaking through the prospective American 
ABM system", including "making the missile manoeuvrable during the active 
part of its flight".

The US moves have seriously revived the threat of nuclear war. Huge amounts 
of money will be drained from the US economy to research and construct the 
new Star Wars system. The US in turn will suck that money out of Third 
World and debtor countries, impoverishing millions of people in the 
process.

Russia, already battling economic catastrophe brought on by the pillaging 
of its economy and looting of its resources, will have to try to match the 
US moves with increased defence spending of its own.

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