O’Brien Threatens Russia and China With Weapons U.S. Doesn’t Even Have

Oct. 29, 2020 (EIRNS)—U.S. National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien appeared at the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C. yesterday to discuss “America’s National Security Challenges, Today and Tomorrow.” He stated, apparently in response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s proposal on Oct. 26 on reducing tensions around intermediate-range missiles in Europe: “We’re developing hypersonic weapons, we’re developing ballistic missile delivery systems that will keep America safe,” O’Brien said, reported RT. These are the missiles, O’Brien went on, that will “defend our allies, that will deter China, and we’ll deploy the same missiles if necessary in Europe, to deter the Russians.”

“We think that by deploying these weapons not only will we deter an attack, but it will also put us in a posture to have real arms control in the future, just like we deployed the Pershing and the cruise missiles to Europe in the ’80s to get the Soviets to come to the table,” he said further. The deployment of the Pershings, along with similar Soviet moves, brought the world to the brink of nuclear Armageddon in the 1980s.

The problem with O’Brien’s threats is that the weapons don’t exist. The Defense Department is indeed working on several concepts and has even flight-tested a couple of them, but when these concepts might become deployable weapons systems is not at all clear.

Leonid Slutsky, the chairman of the Russian State Duma’s Foreign Affairs Committee, took great exception to O’Brien’s threat to deploy hypersonic missiles aimed at Russia. “The White House’s statements about readiness to deploy U.S. intermediate- and shorter-range missiles to Europe are far from being constructive,” Slutsky said, recalling that Putin had earlier confirmed Moscow’s compliance with the moratorium on deployment of Russian missiles in the regions along the EU borders until U.S. missiles appear there. Slutsky further stated that “Washington is inciting instability and creating a threat to global security.”