Missile Shield Against Iran?

The Taipei Times reports that the US and Russia were to hold talks on a possible joint missile shield. The US has been making noises about installing missile shield bases in Eastern Europe, and this has understandably aroused the concerns of the Russians who have to view it as directed at them.

To allay these concerns, GW Bush told his buddy Vladimir “Vladimir” Putin, his Russian counterpart, that the proposed shield was not directed at Russia but at the threat of nuclear missiles from Iran, which has no nuclear missiles and no realistic prospects of acquiring any, and North Korea, which has no missiles capable of threatening Europe. I wonder if Bush just threw this out there off the cuff, because it sounds so utterly implausible. Then again, he would have had to practice saying it a few times to make sure he could get it out with a straight face. Then again, maybe he actually believes it.

The Russians are at least pretending to take Bush at his word and have offered to work jointly to develop missile defense bases in the Caucasus near the Iranian border. This would protect both countries from Iran. The US has got to pretend to take this proposal seriously and to figure out a way to weasel out of the pretense that the shield is directed at Iran and not Russia.

Everybody knows that the missile shield is directed at Russia and that the US has been provoking Russia for years what with expanding NATO eastward, making noises about space based weapons of mass destruction and missile defense. The likely consequence is that Russia will be obliged to adopt a policy to launch on alert, and the chance of an accidental nuclear incident will be increased significantly.

Why the brinksmanship? Beats the hell out of me.