Dear Europe; Posted by Lorelei Kelly

Dear Europe

Please, for the love of your yearly six-week spa vacation, prevail upon your friends in Poland and the Czech Republic to reject the US overtures on missile defense. Why Europe would be interested in this only occasionally successful technology is a mystery. Especially when you have really serious other problems to contend with. Like this. And this. And this. Sure, the three plus billion dollar project is going to be paid for by American taxpayers, but it started out small here, too. Since the 1980's, we've spent some 107 billion dollars on it with no end in sight. Missile Defense is a boondoggle (the wikipedia definition is priceless). Although the sparkly technology is hard to resist, and the alleged intentions are respectable. It DOESN'T WORK. And why NATO would go along with these plans is a mystery. Do we really want to hand Putin an arms race redux? If you think democracy is having a hard time there now....And lest you think that I am just bitter because I and my fellow citizens are footing the bill for this 30 year lobbyist golf trip, keep in mind that as long as the US is obsessed with technological Cold War era "fixes" for defense, its not going to get good at any of Europe's defense priorities. Much less take seriously the Responsibility to Protect. Europe has done a reasonable job since the end of the Cold War in reassessing security threats, becoming expeditionary, discerning the difference between the safety of states versus the safety of people. And understanding that our old defense tools are almost completely inadequate for today's problems. Like, um. terrorism. In the 1990's Europe bristled at the division of labor arguments made by Americans, i.e. that we would do the heavy lifting and the warfighting and Europe could do the peacekeeping and the otherwise messy custodial work of stability. You have an unprecedented opportunity right now to make the case to the USA that those days are over. We see on our TVs every night that relying only on the pointy end of the spear is moving us backward. Iraq and Afghanistan have taught all of us about what the post Cold War world looks like. And besides, if you are going to negotiate for three billion dollars worth of hardware, at least get some helicopters!

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Great letter to Europe about the US establishing missile sites in countries who are beguiled by the cash. Putin's right, this could set off a new round of nuclear proliferation. It is a further boondoggle for the global military-industrial-complex which specializes in making killing-machines, and it endangers the world. After US pre-emptive wars on Afghanistan and Iraq, how could anyone think Condoleeza Rice's sweet assurances of benign intent mean anything more than George Tenet's "slam dunk?"

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