The Bomb
What you don’t hear on the news
The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) which limited US and Soviet Union to long-range nuclear arsenals of 6,000 warheads on 1,600 delivery systems expires on December 5, 2009
With the demise of START, Russia is getting a head start on Cold War II by raising their nuclear missile deployment fourfold.
Russia will add 70 intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) to their arsenal along with additional short-range missiles, 300 tanks, 14 warships and 50 planes. The new multiple-warhead ICBMs will be land-based, and will be “capable of overcoming any existing or future missile defense systems,” according to Russian first Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov.
As another step in Cold War II, Russian warships arrived in Havana on December 19, 2008, as part of a Latin American tour that included stops with U.S. foes Venezuela and Nicaragua.
Russia started on the road to Cold War II, to counter the U.S. push to include Georgia and Ukraine in NATO. Both countries border on Russia.
It is a well-kept secret that Ukraine possesses the world’s third largest nuclear arsenal, including 176 launchers of ICBMs with 1,240 nuclear warheads. In addition, Ukraine has approximately 3,000 tactical nuclear weapons giving them a total of approximately 5,240 nuclear weapons.
The inclusion of Georgia and Ukraine in NATO is too big a threat for Russia, hence Cold War II.
Should the U.S. succeed – if that is success – in including Ukraine and Georgia into NATO, it will not be just another step in Cold War II, it could well be a leap into World War III.