Mid-East File ...
PERSIANS & MEDES --
IRAN + IRAQ
and other Moslem nations
http://users.cybertime.net/~ajgood/ch8p4.html
Iranian Missiles - Inventory Index
http://fas.org/nuke/guide/iran/missile/index.html
Russia supplying arms to Iran
February 23, 2001
Such contracts could include both weapons as well as
military specialists and trainers. The Russian news
agency said Iran wants to procure Russian S-300
anti-aircraft missiles, Mi-17 combat helicopters and
Su-25 fighter planes. The S-300 is said to have the
capability to intercept ballistic missiles.
http://www.menewsline.com/stories/2001/february/headline02_23_6.html
Europe warned of Iranian missile threat
Pentagon highlights danger to
win support for 'son of star wars'
May 8, 2000
http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,4015775-103681,00.html
Assessments by
the CIA show that Iran has the capability to develop
larger missile systems than the Shahab-3, which has
already been tested. It could be in a position to
upgrade to an inter-continental ballistic missile system
capable of hitting the US by 2010.
The Sunburn - Iran's Awesome
Nuclear Anti-Ship Missile
The Weapon That Could
Defeat The US In The Gulf
http://www.rense.com/general59/theSunburniransawesome.htm
"I was
shocked when I learned the facts about these
Russian-made cruise missiles. The problem is that so
many of us suffer from two common misperceptions. The
first follows from our assumption that Russia is
militarily .......
......., in certain key areas Russian
technology is actually superior to our own. And nowhere
is this truer than in the vital area of anti-ship cruise
missile technology, where the Russians hold at least a
ten-year lead over the US. The second misperception has
to do with our complacency in general about
missiles-as-weapons probably attributable to the
pathetic performance of Saddam Hussein's Scuds during
the first Gulf war: a dangerous illusion that I will now
attempt to rectify.
- The Soviets succeeded: by developing several
supersonic anti-ship missiles, one of which, the
SS-N-22 Sunburn, has been called "the most
lethal missile in the world today."
-
- After the collapse of the Soviet Union the
old military establishment fell upon hard times.
But in the late1990s Moscow awakened to the
under-utilized potential of its missile
technology to generate desperately needed
foreign exchange. A decision was made to
resuscitate selected programs, and, very soon,
Russian missile technology
became a hot export commodity. Today, Russian
missiles are a growth industry generating
much-needed cash for Russia, with many billions
in combined sales to
India, China, Viet Nam, Cuba, and also Iran.
In the near future this dissemination of
advanced technology is likely to present serious
challenges to the US. Some
have even warned that the US Navy's largest
ships, the massive carriers, have now become
floating death traps, and should for this reason
be mothballed.
- Perhaps, with this in mind, we should be
asking whether Vladimir Putin is a serious
student of history. If he
is, then he surely recognizes that the deepening
crisis in the Persian Gulf presents not only
manifold dangers, but also opportunities. Be
assured that the Russian leader has not
forgotten the humiliating defeat Ronald Reagan
inflicted upon the old Soviet state. (Have we
Americans forgotten?) By the mid-1980s
the Soviets were in Kabul, and had all but
defeated the Mujahedeen. The Soviet Union
appeared secure in its military occupation of
Afghanistan. But then, in
1986, the first US Stinger missiles reached the
hands of the Afghani resistance; and, quite
suddenly, Soviet helicopter gunships and MiGs
began dropping out of the skies like flaming
stones. The tide swiftly turned, and by
1989 it was all over but the hand wringing and
gnashing of teeth in the Kremlin. Defeated, the
Soviets slunk back across the frontier. The
whole world cheered the American Stingers, which
had carried the day.
-
- This very night, as he sips his cognac,
what is Vladimir Putin
thinking? Is he perhaps thinking about
the perverse symmetries of history? If so, he
may also be wondering (and discussing with his
closest aides) how a truly
great nation like the United States could be so
blind and so stupid as to allow another state,
i.e., Israel, to control its foreign policy,
especially in a region as vital (and volatile)
as the Mid-East.
-
- One can almost hear the Russians' animated
conversation:
-
- "The Americans! What is the matter with
them?" "They simply cannot help themselves."
-
- "What idiots!"
-
- "A nation as foolish as this deserves to be
taught a lesson"
-
- "Yes! For their own good."
-
- "It must be a painful lesson, one they will
never forget. "Are we agreed, then, comrades?"
-
- "Let us teach our American friends a lesson
about the limits of military power..."
-
- Does anyone really
believe that Vladimir Putin will hesitate to
seize a most rare opportunity to change the
course of history and, in the bargain, take his
sweet revenge? Surely Putin understands
the terrible dimensions of the trap into which
the US has blundered,
thanks to the Israelis and their neo-con
supporters in Washington who lobbied so
vociferously for the 2003 invasion of Iraq,
against all friendly and expert advice, and who
even now beat the drums of war against Iran.
Would Putin be wrong to conclude that the US
will never leave the region unless it is first
defeated militarily? Should we blame him for
deciding that Iran is "one bridge too far"?
-
- If the US and Israel overreach, and the
Iranians close the net with
Russian anti-ship missiles,
it will be a fearful symmetry, indeed."
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-
Read the Entire Article at the
following LINK:
http://www.rense.com/general59/theSunburniransawesome.htm
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