An End to Arrogance?....

The Russian Miscalculation

It’s no secret that we overestimate our own capabilities and underestimate everyone else; in short, that foreshortened view of the world seems to characterize our international behavior and has led to America now being thought of as the bully on the block. But more often than not, our eyes prove bigger than our stomachs. We always overshoot and it comes back to haunt us; nevertheless, our recklessness persists. It is as if we learn nothing from experience as we expect new results from the same actions--a surely a marker of insanity.

The latest indication of how our provocations can lead to much more serious responses is exemplified by our recent Missile Shield program.

Working with NATO, America has installed these anti-missile batteries in former Eastern Bloc nations which the Russian leadership believes are targeted at them, not the rogue nation of North Korea which doesn’t even possess an intercontinental missile.

As recently as just a few years ago, Bush looked into Putin’s eyes and saw into his soul and that what he saw was benign; now, Putin eyes reflect a new truth; he is angry at the west and he is speaking out. If we assume that it will end with a war of words it is we who are the optimists. Just recently, in Estonia, when the people tried to remove a statue of a Russian soldier, Estonia was literally crippled by a influx of organized hacking that nearly disembowled the country. We should heed Russia’s actions and be very careful about the implications of our precipitous action..

We make a serious mistake if we underestimate the Russians, newly rich from the sale of gas to the West. In our enduring arrogance that has led to miscalculation after miscalculation, we have provoked the one country that still has thousands of intercontinental missiles in place that can be retargeted in under two minutes to zero in on our biggest cities. This kind of brinkmanship goes Dulles, the architect of this wrong-headed tactic, one better; it frightens the living daylights out of most rational people.

Why are we doing this? Especially in light of the fact that as most scientists agree, America’s anti-missile shield was a joke from day one. Even today, there is not a scintilla of truth behind the claim that the anti-missile shield works. When it did work marginally, it was only because the mission was simplified and a receiver was discovered in the target missile . Clearly, it’s for the same reason we are building a space station on the moon, it’s to keep our defense contractors fat and happy and supporting republican causes with their never-ending flow of money despite the fact that it will accomplish very little that couldn’t be accomplished with a robotic program..

It’s time rationality entered the picture; that the people stood up to say what we are doing borders on “madness.” Let’s bring down the barriers; let’s get rid of the bullies and the sycophants and let’s practice good governance—something these clowns don’t have a clue about.

Les Aaron