ROMANIAN President Traian Basescu said on Thursday that Romania will host US interceptor missiles along its border with the Russian Federation.
This latest missile plan is part of a US ruling class scheme to defend itself and Western Europe after it has launched a ballistic missile first strike against Russia.
This latest US move reflects the deepening of the worldwide capitalist crisis, and the growing desperation of the US ruling class to gain access to the material resources of the Russian Federation, including the Caucasus, and also the central Asian states.
It was only last year that Obama scrapped plans for Poland and the Czech Republic to host missile shield elements to supposedly counter possible strikes from Iran.
Now, the threat has been more than restored and the arms race has gained a new lease of life, since Russia will now have to outflank the besieging missile systems to defend itself.
President Basescu of Romania said after a meeting of the country’s Supreme Defence Council, ‘Romania will not host a system directed against Russia, but against other threats.’ He however could not a put name to the threats.
US Vice-President Joseph Biden visited Romania, Poland and the Czech Republic in October to promote the new missile shield plan, and he has returned there in the last week.
Russian experts said that missiles in Romania were nothing to do with Iran but were a direct threat to Russia.
‘We are talking about the placement of the land-based Aegis system in Romania by 2015 which uses the new Standard Missile interceptor, SM-3. This weaponry, without a doubt, could significantly reduce Russia’s deterrent capability,’ said Colonel Igor Korotchenko, editor-in-chief of the National Defence magazine.
He said SM-3 missiles would be able to intercept Russian ballistic missiles shortly after launch and on their initial flight trajectory.
He added that, for self protection, Russia had to take immediate steps.
Korotchenko said: ‘Russia must warn Romania that, if the elements of the US missile shield are placed in the country, they will become a target of Russia’s preventive missile strikes.’
Korotchenko continued that with ship-based SM-3s in the North, Black and Mediterranean seas, and mobile land-based SM-3s in Central Europe, the western borders of Russia would be surrounded by US missile interceptors by 2015.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has declared his country ready to take part in a revised US missile defence plan.
After meeting the Polish prime minister, Biden said: ‘We appreciate Poland has stepped up and agreed to host an element of the previous missile defence plan, and we now appreciate that Poland’s government agrees with us that there is now a better way . . .with new technology and new information, to defend against emerging ballistic missile threats.’
Clearly the only way to keep the peace is to disarm the imperialist powers.
The worldwide capitalist crisis has enormously sharpened the class struggle between the ruling classes and the working class and is creating the conditions for socialist revolutions.
Not too far away from Romania, in Greece the working class is poised to take general strike action against savage government and EU-inspired cuts.
The Greek workers are being driven forward to bring down the Papandreou government and to bring in a workers’ government.
Meanwhile, the rulers of the EU tremble and stock markets crash at the thought of the Greek ‘contagion’ spreading, while in the US, Obama is beginning to show his fear of the US working class.
The only way to stop the threat of imperialist war is to disarm the imperialists through socialist revolutions.