If we are really serious about weakening Russia, the best thing we could do would be for our government to stop subsidizing our absolutely ridiculous consumption of oil. No military action we could take in Georgia or agreements we could make with Ukraine or Poland would be as much of a threat to Russia’s long-term power projection capabilities as a drop in the price of oil.
Within a very few years the United States could dramatically reduce its consumption of foreign oil. This would not only reduce our strategic vulnerability it would also be good for our economy. Nearly $2 billion dollars flies out of our economy EACH DAY due our current oil consumption patterns.
It’s completely thrashing our economy. We have within our reach the ability to move significant portions of our economy over to other energy sources. Unfortunately, the oil companies have somehow managed to absolutely brainwash people into thinking any alternative model is completely unworkable.
You even have otherwise intelligent people running around saying absolutely fantastic and bonkers things like “solar panels require more energy to manufacture they they will ever generate!” Or the even more bizarre, “I don’t want my tax dollars going to research alternative energy!” while at the same time being unaware that the Federal Government subsidizes our oil guzzling with more dollars per year of funding than all other forms of energy research combined.
To those who believe that missile interceptors in Poland are nothing but a completely innocent, non-offensive move directed strictly at Iran: come on. This is a mature forum filled with people who read. The Polish interceptors are clearly directed primarily at Russia. If we were so damned worried about ICMBs out of Iran we could have interceptors based in Israel, Saudi, Qatar, and Afghanistan.
Clearly we want to reduce Russia’s ability to utilize missiles. Clearly a significant portion of our national strategy has been to align forces right up against Russia’s border. Clearly we want to contain Russia and not see it re-assert itself. To deny this would seem to require a stunning refusal to follow the news or read the strategic literature.
If, for whatever strange reasons you really want to argue that our BMD programs are only directed at Iran, I really don’t know what to say.
