Submitted by Mike, Feb 20, 2007 11:51

In response to the response..

Yes they are good. Europe will in fact be protected from the Middle East, namely Iran, by their deployment. Even if we have a hidden agenda of intimidating Russia, so what? Even pretending that Russia itself has not contributed to Iran's trouble-making, we can't forgoe a strategic opportunity simply because one or several inconvenient circumstances exist from its implementation, i.e. possibly breaking a treaty with Russia.

And of course we can't surround every corrupt country with military bases. But placing missles aimed at Iran (a Holocaust denying country with nuclear ambitions) in area that just happens to be next to Russia (a large resource rich country that has killed at least 10 million of its own citrizens through genocide in the last 65 years) should provide little pause in considering the diplomatic blowback if any. These countries represent special situations and grave threats to the US even if we only claim to be protecting our "friends". In other words, there is nothing wrong with a great power like the US considering self-interest when deciding issues of strategy.

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