PES Manifesto

1. Insecurity provider by pattheact on Monday, October 22, 2007 at 13:19

My first reaction to the US project of building an anti-missile shield in Czech Republic and in Poland was to say that this project was meant in the first place to increase the division between "old" and "New" Europe, as stated by Donald Rumsfeld at the very beginning of the first Bush administration. A tool to divide Europe and to avoid a political union between european states and especially a common defense policy. Of course we must not forget Russia, who has used this amercian project to boost its own defense projects, leading to a new run on armements that no one in the world should be happy or feel safe about...exept maybe the initiator of the project who gains a new possible "ennemy" that will justify new investments in the US armement industry... This anti missile project then leads to a very black and white picture of world affairs, those good and bads invented by a hegemonical acting administration who is always promoting armed and defensive policies, to act in a very offensive belliquous way. The definition of Rogue states appeared first under Clinton when America was desperately trying to apply its thirty year old cold war policies to the new ennemy that needed to be risen with the so-calles terrorist or rogue states. The Irak experience should be used as a preventive example of what can happen if force is used to settle situations that could have been delt with on a diplomlatic and more cooperative level. The world has changed and not only since the WTC crashes. The world is not split in goods and bads, even if this looks like the easiest way to deal with things. Life is not easy, nor are politics. This anti-missile shield is just a projection and a bad solution for a world that doesn't exist anymore, so yes it is definetily a provider of insecurity!

2. PES must oppose the US Missile Defence programme by benfolley on Tuesday, November 6, 2007 at 12:28

Vladimir Putin’s statement that Russia is being confronted with a similar situation to that the United States faced with Cuba in 1962, is the most stark demonstration of the political destabilisation that is being caused by Bush’s determination to go ahead with US Missile Defence in Europe. The US Missile Defence programme today is the reincarnation of Reagan’s Strategic Defence Initiative – the project designed shoot down incoming Soviet intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) and therefore allow the US to achieve global military superiority . It is clear that, given Russia’s strategic and growing economic links with the rest of Europe, the US is not able to politically isolate Russia in such a way and needs other reasons to justify its project. The Russian government is firmly of the view that it is the real target of US Missile Defence and given that the US has rejected an offer from Putin to use the Gabala radar station in Azerbaijan to monitor Iran – which the US argues the system is meant to combat – it is of little surprise that the Russians assert the system has a another purpose than that Bush has stated. The US determination to assert its military superiority is causing political destabilisation and should be opposed. The PES manifesto should adopt the statement recently agreed by Socialist International affiliates from Germany, Austria, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Slovenia on 14th September, which said "We are concerned about the decision to deploy the system and are at one with the large majority of our populations in rejecting it… We must avoid any undermining or division of the international efforts to secure non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and arms control. We do not want any new missiles in Europe.”

3. PES statement on anti-missile shield by editor on Wednesday, December 19, 2007 at 11:39

@benfolley

Thanks for your suggestion! In case you are interested the PES has expressed its stand on the anti-missile system in a statement from May 2007. Find it here: http://www.pes.org/downloads/PES_Statement_anti-missiles_system_adopted.pdf