U.S. Nuclear Missiles Returning To Europe?

In recent weeks, there has been growing concern about arms tensions between Russia and NATO. Washington is now considering stationing troops and equipment in Germany in response to Russian military rearmament. Here, Russian surface-to-air missiles at a military parade in Moscow. DPA

Spiegel Online: Cold War Resurgent: US Nukes Could Soon Return to Europe

Washington is once again talking about stationing nuclear warheads in Europe. Russia, too, is turning up the rhetoric. Europeans are concerned about becoming caught in the middle of a new Cold War.

It's been more than three decades since the vast peace protests took over Bonn's Hofgarten meadow in the early 1980s. Back then, about half a million protesters pushed their way into the city center, a kilometer-long mass of people moving through the streets. It was the biggest rally in the history of the German Federal Republic.

Today, the situation isn't quite that fraught, but it seems feasible that a similar scene may soon play out in front of the Chancellery in Berlin. For some time now, the Americans have once again been thinking about upgrading Europe's nuclear arsenal, and in the past week, a rhetorical arms race has begun that is reminiscent of the coldest periods of the Cold War.

Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier warned of an "accelerating spiral of escalating words and then of actions." He described them as "the old reflexes of the Cold War."

WNU Editor: The last thing that Europe and the world needs right now is a nuclear arms race. Unfortunately .... the trends are ominous, something that even Russian President Putin is now trying to downplay even though his own nuclear actions have aggravated the situation.... World no closer to Cold War-style nuclear standoff, Putin tells global media chiefs (RT).