October 09, 2008

While we Were Distracted.....

Russia bought Iceland.

OK not quite...but damn.

From Stratfor...

Iceland straddles the key Greenland-Iceland-United Kingdom (GIUK) gap, likely the most strategic thoroughfare of the Cold War and of the North Atlantic in general. Soviet (and now Russian) nuclear submarines departing Murmansk on the Kola Peninsula to threaten Europe or United States would have to pass through the GIUK gap. The U.S. presence in Iceland was therefore considerable during the Cold War. The United States maintained a Naval Air Station in Keflavik as well as an extensive anti-submarine hydrophone sensor system, called the Sound Surveillance System, lining the seabed in the area. With the end of the Cold War and changes in the U.S. military’s priorities, the GIUK gap was abandoned, and the Keflavik base closed in September 2006.....
....At the very least, the United States will regret ever having abandoned Keflavik.




Lovely.

Stratfor goes on to say that NATO is deeply entrenched in Iceland...but
the main bases are shut down, Iceland is desperate and the rest of NATO rather dependent on Russian energy reserves.

UPDATE:It should be noted in passing that Tom Clancy plots are always worrisome when in the current events rather than fiction section.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 05:01 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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1 I've been troubled by the abandonment of the Iceland bases. Probably won't need them.

Unless we do, in which case we will really really really need them. And not have them.

Posted by: Murdoc at Sun Oct 12 22:41:04 2008 (8MWqX)

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