... is a good defense, if you listen to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
MAFRA, Portugal - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday compared the U.S. proposal to build a missile defense shield in Eastern Europe to the Cuban missile crisis of the 1960s.
"Analogous actions by the Soviet Union, when it deployed missiles in Cuba, prompted the 'Caribbean crisis,'" Putin said at a news conference at the end of a European Union-Russian summit in Portugal, using the Russian term for the Cuban missile crisis.
"Such a threat is being set up on our borders," he said.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack disabuses him of this absurd notion.
McCormack said there were "clear historical differences between our plans to deploy a defensive missile system designed to protect against the launch of missiles from rogue states, such as Iran, and the offensive nuclear test capability of the missiles that were being installed in Cuba back in the 1960s."
In related news, strong pitching has been known to really put some runs on the board, and in soccer, if you shut out the other team, FIFA now awards you a win.
I understand that this posture is one that Mr. Putin must take, but that doesn't make it sound any less silly.



