Obama-Cameron Cruise Missile Plan ‘Very Dangerous’

© AP Photo / US NAVYA Tomahawk cruise missile is seen emerging from the ocean after being launched from the USS Florida.
A Tomahawk cruise missile is seen emerging from the ocean after being launched from the USS Florida. - Sputnik International
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US policies seeking to deploy cruise missiles in the United Kingdom are exceptionally irresponsible, dangerous and appear targeted to try and deliberately provoke Russia, Dr. Helen Caldicott, founder of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), told Sputnik.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Caldicott made the comment after President Obama discussed with Cameron the possible deployment of new US cruise missiles in the United Kingdom as a reaction to Russia’s alleged deployment of Iskander ballistic missiles in the Kaliningrad province.

Polish soldiers watch as US troops from the 5th Battalion of the 7th Air Defense Regiment emplace a launching station of the Patriot air and missile defence system at a test range in Sochaczew, Poland, on March 21, 2015. - Sputnik International
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“[The deployment of US] cruise missiles [in the UK] would violate the 1987 Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty,” Caldicott said on Monday. “That would be a very dangerous move on Obama and [British Prime Minister David] Cameron’s part.”

Obama and Cameron reportedly discussed the issue when they met at the Group of Seven (G7) summit in the Bavarian Alpine town of Krun in Germany on Sunday.

“We are dangerously close to having a nuclear war by increased international tension or through human error,” Caldicott said. “Whenever there is international tension, the readiness standings of nuclear forces on either side is always increased.”

Britain's Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond gestures during a press conference at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London - Sputnik International
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Cruise missiles are especially dangerous to the nuclear balance between the superpowers, Caldicott explained, because they fly so low, hug the contours of the land so closely that they cannot be reliably monitored on radar. Also, cruise missiles do not follow any predictable ballistic trajectory.

Further, the weapons are so small and mobile that “they can be hidden anywhere, even under a haystack,” she said.

The danger of miscalculation was greater than it had ever been during the Cold War “because at no point in the Cold War were NATO forces anywhere near Russia’s own borders,” she added.

IPPNW under Caldicott’s leadership was awarded the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize.

Caldicott, an Australian physician, has been one of the world’s leading anti-nuclear activists for more than 40 years. She is also the founder and leader of the Helen Caldicott Foundation for a Nuclear Free-Future and the author of many books including “If You Love This Planet” and “The New Nuclear Danger: George W. Bush’s Military Industrial Complex.”

The Smithsonian Institution has named Caldicott one of the most influential women of the 20th century.

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