The US military’s test-firing of two intercontinental ballistic missiles this week is intended at silencing Republican critics who accuse President Barack Obama of being weak, an American writer and retired professor says.
The ICBMs were also an attempt to prop up support for Saudi Arabia and Turkey who are supporting militants fighting the Syrian government, said James Petras, a professor emeritus of sociology at Binghamton University in Binghamton, New York, and adjunct professor at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia in Canada.
“This is a dangerous game because once the US begins to escalate its military potential, it could trigger some reciprocal action on the part of Russia,” Petras told Press TV on Monday.
The US military test-fired its second ICBM in a week on Thursday, seeking to demonstrate its nuclear arms capacity at a time of rising strategic tensions with Russia and China.
The blastoff of the unarmed Minuteman III missile from a silo at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California was meant to demonstrate the ability of American nuclear arms, Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work said.