A Rogue Feeling

"He [Stephen Hadley] explained that the US defense system is intended to intercept missiles that might come from a rogue state like Iran, not Russia." So asserted guest host Rebecca Roberts on ATC today, once again adopting the language of the US Pentagon and State Department as NPR covers Russia's reaction to the US putting anti-missile systems on its borders.

As if she were an employee of the State Department, Roberts asks, "can you explain for us why the Russians are so upset about this missile defense plan, I mean US officials have made it clear that these missile defenses couldn’t possibly be used against Russia—so what’s at issue?" Really, we all know that if US officials said it is so, it just has to be true!

Keeping the focus on Iran, Roberts asks, "from a strategic point of view, in addition to angering Russia, does putting missile defense sites in the Czech Republic and Poland make sense if the threat is supposedly coming most likely from Iran?"

To who are these questions being asked? Rose Gottemoeller, director of the Moscow Center of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace [a loyal tool of the US foreign policy]. And does Rose challenge the absurd portrayal of Iran as the great threat to world peace? Here's what she says of the missile defense system in question: "would be capable against kind of starter systems such as those that the Iranians would be deploying in some years to come. Got to stress the Iranians aren’t there yet with a long range missile that would reach Europe but the feeling is that they can be within a very limited number of years and therefore a missile defense system that isn’t very capable is enough."

Be afraid, be very afraid.