No reason to go ballistic

What Putin ought to realise is that the missile defence system Bush is deploying has a fatal flaw

In a prelude to this week8217;s Group of Eight summit in Germany, Russian President Vladimir Putin railed against the Bush administration8217;s plan to deploy a missile defence system in Poland and the Czech Republic. Although there are some genuine conflicts of interest between Putin8217;s Russia and other members of the G-8, the Cold War-style clash over the anti-missile system should not be one of them. This is an unnecessary fight that President Bush started and Putin has exacerbated.

In military terms, Putin8217;s talk about targeting European sites with 8220;ballistic or cruise missiles or maybe a completely new system8221; was empty of meaning; missiles currently in Russia8217;s arsenal can already be directed at new targets within minutes. Nevertheless, Putin8217;s loose missile talk does fit into a pattern of belligerent pronouncements not just from Moscow but also from Washington.

When it comes to Bush8217;s insistence on siting 10 anti-missile interceptors in Poland and a radar unit in the Czech Republic, the revival of Cold War rhetoric about a balance of terror becomes particularly gratuitous 8212; an avoidable conflict rooted in deliberate deceptions on both sides of the vanished Iron Curtain.

In a long interview over a lavish dinner with Western journalists Friday night, Putin mocked the claim that the missile defense system planned for Central Europe is needed to counter Iranian long-range missiles. About this Putin was only partly right. Iran may not now have missiles with sufficient range to reach Europe, much less the United States, but the Islamic Republic has been extending the reach of its missiles and could conceivably develop ones capable of hitting Europe by the time components of a US missile defense are deployed on Polish and Czech soil.

Putin also was wrong about why Bush wants to extend to Europe the most ambitious version of US missile defense 8212; a system designed to knock out intercontinental ballistic missiles with so-called kill vehicles outside earth8217;s atmosphere. Putin was being overly Machiavellian when he hinted that the hidden purpose of Bush8217;s antimissile deployments in Europe was to 8220;push us to make reciprocal steps in order to avoid further closeness of Russia and Europe.8221; And he was being overly paranoid when he said a situation in which one side has an antimissile system and the other side does not 8220;creates the illusion of being protected and increases the possibility of unleashing a nuclear conflict.8221;

What Putin ought to realise 8212; and what his nuclear specialists can tell him 8212; is that the missile defence system Bush is deploying has a fatal flaw: its sensors cannot discriminate between live warheads in space and easily contrived decoys. A system that doesn8217;t work cannot be a threat to Russia, much less a shield against Iran. This is a system that has benefited only defence contractors and weakened only the American taxpayer.

An editorial comment in 8216;The Boston Globe8217;, June 5