General Chat (Non-Music-Related)

Russia may send S-300 missile system to Iran - media
MOSCOW | By Thomas Grove

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/ ... K420150120

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia might deliver a long-overdue S-300 air defense missile system to Iran, honoring a contract that was canceled in 2010 following strong pressure from the West, Iranian and Russian media said on Tuesday.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu is visiting Tehran and signed an agreement with Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan to boost cooperation, Iran's Fars semi-official news agency said.

Fars said the two countries would resolve problems with the delivery of the advanced missile system, while Russia's RIA state news confirmed the issue was once again under discussion.

"A step was taken in the direction of cooperation on the economy and arms technology, at least for such defensive systems such as the S-300 and S-400. Probably we will deliver them," RIA quoted Colonel General Leonid Ivashov as saying.

Ivashov is the former head of the defense minister's department of international cooperation.

No further details were immediately available.

Dmitry Medvedev, then the Russian president, canceled a contract to supply Tehran with the advanced missile system in 2010 in the wake of U.N. sanctions imposed on Iran over its disputed nuclear program.

The United States and Israel heavily lobbied Russia to block the missile sale, saying it could be used to shield Iran's nuclear facilities from possible future air strikes. Iran in turn has taken Russia to arbitration to finalize the sale.

Ivashov said that Russia's ties with Iran had strengthened recently due to Western sanctions that they are both now facing and added that the two countries were looking to expand their cooperation in other areas.

The S-300 advanced missiles have a 125-mile (200-km) range and Russia has stoked tensions with the West by trying to sell the system to other Middle Eastern countries, including Syria.

Russia's ties with the West are at Cold War lows over the conflict in Ukraine where Kiev says Moscow has sent troops and arms to support pro-Russian rebels in the country's east. Russia denies the allegations.

(Reporting by Thomas Grove and Parisa Hafezi Editing by Crispian Balmer)

" Wait until you hear about how many Dong feng 31 missiles the Chinese planing on sending to the Mexicans!"

Please do tell me about it! No worry there, taxxpayers are feeding and supporting almost all of Mexico these days. (Both here and there)

China is revving up its military, Russia is ramping up its military, we are downgrading ours. GREAT strategy!! We have them running scared now.

Now that America has been downgraded to wussy, through the tireless efforts of our fearless leader, we need foreign defenders. I think this is a missiles for peace program. It is about time we heard some good news.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... sions.html

US to sell missiles to Poland amid Russia tensions
Poland is to purchase 40 medium-range missiles from the US as the Ukraine crisis sees eastern European countries double-down on military spending
Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski, right, and US President Barack Obama in a hangar at Warsaw Chopin Airport last June
Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski, right, with US President Barack Obama in Warsaw last June Photo: Janek Skarzynski/AFP

Matthew Day in Warsaw and Tom Parfitt in Moscow

4:45PM BST 22 Sep 2014

The United States is to sell medium-range cruise missiles to Poland as the eastern European country continues to bolster its defences in the wake of the Ukraine crisis.

The sale of 40 air-launched AGM 158-missiles to Warsaw was approved by the US State Department on Monday.

The weapons can strike targets up to 250 miles away, further than the distance from Poland to Russia’s western border, and will be used as a “deterrent to regional threats”, the US State Department said. There was no immediate comment from the Kremlin.

It is the first time the Polish air force will have the fire power to strike Russia from within their own border. Poland's missiles are currently limited to a maximum range of 43 miles.

Air launched, the new projectiles have a low-radar profile and can carry a 1,000-pound warhead.
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The US State Department added that the sale “would contribute to the foreign policy and national security objectives of the United States by helping to improve the security of a Nato ally.

“Poland continues to be an important force for political stability and economic progress in Central Europe,” it said.

The deal forms part of a £306 million package that also includes upgrades to Poland’s fleet of 48 F-16 jets.

In a separate development, the Polish government also announced it is prepared to sell arms to Ukraine, if its neighbour asks for them.

“I confirm that the Polish defence industry is interested in taking this direction,” Tomasz Siemoniak, Poland’s defence minister, said on Monday.

“There are several products that may be interesting for Ukraine.”

So far Nato has rebuffed pleas for weapons to help Ukraine in its struggle against Russian-backed forces fighting in its eastern territories.

Valery Heletey, Ukraine’s defence minister, claimed earlier this month that he had discussed weapons deliveries in bilateral meetings with Nato defence ministers during the alliance’s summit in Wales on September 4-5.

"We reached agreements in closed talks, without media, about ... those weapons that we currently need," he said. However, no Nato member confirmed this.

The Ukraine crisis has galvanised Polish concerns over national security and added significant impetus to a 10-year programme aimed at overhauling and modernising the country’s armed forces.

The government has since accelerated the purchase of 30 attack helicopters by two years, saying the events in Ukraine had led to a “speeding up” of modernisation programmes.

Poland is also in the market for new training aircraft, air-defence missile systems and has committed itself to increasing defence spending to Nato’s desired benchmark of 2 per cent of GDP.

Dmitry Rogozin, a Russian deputy prime minister, also said on Monday it would be unlawful if France went through with a threat to cancel delivery of several Mistral helicopter carrier ships to Russia.

The stern of one Mistral ship was made at the Baltic Shipyard in St. Petersburg, he said, adding: “That is why if they want to keep the ship, we will have to tear away its stern section and get it back to use it in other ships.”

France said at the beginning of this month that it was suspending the $1.7bn (GBP1bn) contract signed in 2011 to supply Russia with four Mistrals over the Ukraine crisis. Last week, Francois Hollande, the president of France, said the first ship could be delivered, "if the process of peace settlement [of the Ukraine crisis] is completed”.

Under Bush, we already had an agreement to put missiles & defense systems in Poland that would have made Russia think twice about invading Ukraine. But being inept and incompetent in foreign policy, the current Administration backed out of that because Putin frowned once, and we are about making our enemies happy now.

This is easily the worst President ever...makes me wistful for the days of Jimmy Carter's embarrassing incompetence.

Good post's guys. I'm very happy you did NOT post in general music.

Jimmy the weather is fine... Go look at the flowers.

Better yet... Go back to general chat music and talk about important stuff.

Better yet,... keep your eyes on the flowers.

Jeeze - our country is falling apart - and people are worried about the bloody Iranians?!

For the love of God - what do you want - a dreadful murderous country that slaughters anybody and everybody that our government (who slaughter whomever is the Hitler du Jour) deems worthy of slaughter. Meanwhile, back at the asylum, those same people are criticizing the government for murdering people world wide and locally.

It's bizarre. Enjoy - no fiction writer would dare create a situation as silly as this one in which we find ourselves.

Cheers
Talbot

WOW is someone really going out of their way to be insulting and disrespectful????
I musta' hit a sore point... I'm gonna let those flowers keep growing.
I love this weather don't you?

There you go. I understand it is very correct for you to silence me. The weather is fine... Keep looking at the flowers Jimmy.

The world as we know it is blowing up in our faces - and I'm supposed to give a sh*t about Iran? Just how many Hitlers am I supposed to believe in - first is was the Vietnamese, then Panamanians, then Grenada, then the Serbs, then the Iraqis, then the Syrians, now the Iranians...And of course Al Qaeda but they are our buddies now...we train them and give them weapons for some bizarre reason - at least in Syria and Yemen.

But wait there's more:

The insanity rose into the red line when Obama's clowns sponsored that coup in Ukraine. Now the war mongers want to fight Russia. Whew...they are in for a very unpleasant surprise. We all are. A nuclear one.

What ever.

Please....really...let's fix this mess here in the US and stop killing people over seas - you all admit our leaders are idiots - the leftists blame Bush (me too) and the rightists blame Obama (me too) but all know that they are all buffoons.

So why in the hell does everyone stand on their chair and shout "hooray!" when these acknowledged buffoons announce the latest and greatest threat to the very existence of the the USA and vow to to kill some folks because that's what they do and the Saudis told them to do it?

Talbot

Bob, it has always seemed that you are reasonable in your replies, and worthy of a non ridiculous response.

Let history NOT be re written.

To pay for WW1 president wilson under that interpretation... basically raised the tax rates to 95%. We never reached a war time economy where all the resources of our country were diverted to making weapons. The actual intent of that crushing tax rate was control. Harding was elected, died of a heart attack in office. His contribution was reversing the crushing tax rate. Coolidge took it even further and the result was the "ROARING TWENTIES" But even that was to late... The oppression of the government by the government, for the government was done.

Flash forward , the end of WW2. I have had the privilege to do business with many , many of the WW2 vets. WHAT AN AMAZING GENERATION OF PEOPLE! They never complained about the chaos that they returned too. They just got to work. 60 ,70, 80 hour weeks. They never complained about the fact that changing an economy that was totally based on making bullets suddenly had to shift back to making ice cream. The most over looked difference is that we had law and order and reasonable taxation that allowed these American heroes to save and prosper.

Yes we have to be careful about an economy based on war... We also have to be careful of a government, our government... That takes too much.