‹rant›why is “President” Bush such an idiot? He goes over to talk to Putin, puts on his war-monger hat, and starts hawking the ridiculous NMD idea. Having worked in aerospace (specifically on a portion of the NMD system) I know that it’s not even close to being able to defend us from full-on nuclear onslaught. In fact, if you recall the more terrestial example (NMD being a space-based system) that we all kept seeing on CNN, of the Patriot missiles impacting incoming targets during Desert Storm, that was, in reality, a few actual strikes, replayed from several angles. The true hit-ratio was closer to 1 of 20. Not to mention the dozen or so failed tests of the new system…

At any rate, Bush goes over to hawk the NMD thing, afterwards giving his American constituents some ridiculous observations such as:

…looked the man in the eye and found him very trustworthy… I wouldn’t have invited him to my ranch if I didn’t trust him.

I was able to get a sense of his soul…a man deeply committed to his country and the best interests of his country…

Well, my mind’s at ease. Thank goodness we have a leader who bases his world-effecting decisions on deep, longing looks into another world-leader’s eyes.

The very intelligent Vladimir Putin, in reacting to our suggested saber-rattling, has correctly pointed out how the escalation of our NMD system effectively voids the START I & II Treaties, not to mention the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. Further, in response to Bush’s statements that we would proceed with NMD, whether or not Russia liked it, Putin declared:

When we hear statements that the programs would go with us or without us, well, we cannot force anyone to do the things we would like them to. We offer our cooperation. We offer to work jointly. If there is no need that such joint work is needed, well, suit yourself. We will reinforce our capability by mounting multiple warheads on our missiles, that will cost us a meager sum. The nuclear arsenal of Russia will be augmented multifold.

So, you see then, Bush’s overwhelming jackass-edness is now throwing us into another Cold War. Things were going great there for awhile. Everyone was dismantling their missiles, hanging out at McDonalds, and there were Levi’s for everybody. Now, though, we’re going to start seeing those old duck-and-cover commercials, and, new Joe McCarthy’s will pop up on every corner.

Thank you, President Bush, for negating 30 years of peace.‹/rant›