Defense Secretary Gates Proposes Holding Off Until Iran Threatens

Ah, the Cold War... Part Deux. In a move aimed at placating some nervous Russian tempers, on Tuesday US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the United States may delay activating planned European sites of its planned missile defense system... despite President Bush's impassioned plea to fully fund the controversial system.

According to the New York Times, Gates -- who made is comments from a news conference in Prague with Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek of the Czech Republic -- said the missile shield may not be brought online until hostile middle-eastern state Iran took a deliberately beligerant action, such as testing its own nuclear-capable missiles.

Gates also took steps to create the image -- and it may be only that -- of ongoing cooperation between US and Russian officials on the missile shield. As ANN reported, in July Russian president Vladimir Putin sent notice to NATO his country no longer intends to be bound by the 1990 Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty, so long as the United States pushed ahead with plans to deploy defensive missiles in former Soviet-bloc states.

"We continue to encourage the Russians to partner with us in missile defense, and continue our efforts to reassure them that these facilities are not aimed at Russia and could benefit Russia," Gates said this week.

Gates' apparent steps towards appeasement came as President Bush attempted to rally financial support for the missiles in Congress... by playing the Iran card, in a speech before National Defense University.

"With continued foreign assistance, Iran could develop an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the United States and all of Europe before 2015," the President said, adding the time to act was now.

In his speech, Bush also took pains to calm Russian fears of the spector of an American missile shield in its own backyard.

"The Cold War is over," he said. "Russia is not our enemy. We’re building a new security relationship whose foundation does not rest on the prospect of mutual annihilation."

FMI: www.defenselink.mil