Star Wars in Their Eyes
President Putin's Kremlin camarilla appears determined to restart the Cold War. Barely a week after the Russ defense minister, Sergey Ivanov, announced it was time to resume building nuclear missiles and submarines capable of reducing the capitals of America and Western Europe to dust, another top Russian military type is advocating the end to the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, signed by President Reagan and and the Soviet Communist Party boss, Mikhail Gorbachev, in 1987. Yuri Baluyevsky, chief of Russia's military General Staff, is threatening that if America goes ahead with siting its strategic defense initiative missiles in Poland and the Czech Republic, Russia will no longer feel bound to follow the agreement which put an end to medium range missiles based in Europe.
If you think this is mere saber rattling, look forward a little to the end of the year, when Vladimir Putin is due to stand down as president. The former communist head of the KGB secret police has just effectively named the front-runner as his successor by appointing the bellicose Mr. Ivanov "first deputy prime minister." Pronouncing his plan to rearm Russia, Mr. Ivanov suggested that the Americans were not merely placing the Star Wars missiles near Russia's border to stave off an attack on the NATO countries by the Iranian mullahs, but that they were also protecting themselves from Russia.
Perhaps it was a self-fulfilling prophesy that the Russian response to the purely defensive SDI missiles has been to provide Americans and Europeans with all the evidence needed that the Russians cannot be trusted. As for the new arms race into which Russia is itching to enter, how quickly the Kremlin forgets. The Soviets lost the Cold War and bankrupted their empire in a futile effort to outspend and outsmart the Americans. The man who cracked the will of the communists, President Reagan, was wise enough to understand that even with both sides disarming, it would be easy enough for the Russians to rearm. Which is why, despite some derision at the time from his European partners, he believed the West should continue defending itself with Star Wars.
