Putin Suspends Russia's Participation in Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty

MOSCOW — Russia on Saturday suspended its participation in a key European arms control treaty that governs deployment of troops on the continent, the Kremlin said.

President Vladimir Putin signed a decree suspending Russia's participation in the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty due to "extraordinary circumstances ... which affect the security of the Russian Federation and require immediate measures," the Kremlin said in a statement.

Putin has in the past threatened to freeze his country's compliance with the treaty, accusing the United States and its NATO partners of undermining regional stability with U.S. plans for a missile defense system in former Soviet bloc countries in Eastern Europe.

The treaty, between Russian and NATO members, was signed in 1990 and amended in 1999 to reflect changes since the breakup of the Soviet Union, adding the requirement that Moscow withdraw troops from the former Soviet republics of Moldova and Georgia.

I am soooo puzzled. I have been assured by the NY Times that the missile defense program, dubbed “Star Wars” by the incredibly wise and witty Senator Kennedy, was a sham. It only existed in the fevered imagination of Ronald Reagan …. and we know what a dunce he was. It would not work. It was a huge waste of money. It would not be effective … against the Soviet arsenal … it could not hit its targets … it was both unworkable and destabilizing.

Stop! You are making my head hurt by holding too many contradictory ideas at the same time.

You would think that Russia would want to see the United States military waste its money in weapons that don’t work. We have been assured by our intelligentsia, our editorial writers and our scientist that anti-missile systems don’t work. Hasn’t any one of these people told Yeltsin to read the NY Times? Why is he concerned at all about US weapons systems that can’t do their job?

I’m convinced that the geniuses that write editorials and article for the MSM are right and the Yeltsin and whoever he’s getting his military information system is wrong. So the way to get Yeltsin to not abrogate this Cold War treaty is for … negotiation. Of course the Bush/Cheney Whitehouse can’t be trusted to do this because the fools believe that the system will work. So, let’s send the editorial staff of the NY Times to Moscow and explain, in words of one syllable, so that silly old Yeltsin will understand, that his military advisors are wrong, the US is wasting its money and he should ENCOURAGE the US to install the missile system.

I mean, it’s like our situation in Iraq. By fighting al Qaida in Iraq we are encouraging that group and actually increasing their power. So al Qaida is really on Bush’s side and hates the Democrats and the MSM and the “peace activists.” Am I right or am I right?

Pour me another bartender.

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