"We have been sold to the Russians."

[Chanchu]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090918/ap_ ... defense_22


"An editorial in Hospodarske Novine, a respected pro-business Czech newspaper, said: "an ally we rely on has betrayed us, and exchanged us for its own, better relations with Russia, of which we are rightly afraid."

Any Czech or Pole RSF People here who would like to comment on this?

"No Radar. Russia won," the largest Czech daily, Mlada Fronta Dnes, declared in a front-page headline"

I don't like it- seems to me to be a bad move on Obama's part another slap in the face to a friend by America. But I really want to know what Polish and Czech people think.

[Darthwing Teorist]

Personally, I think the missile shield is a crappy idea. Can it become better? Of course, but it will be easily overcome by any country with nukes. Even I can think of a myriad ways to do this.

I cannot speak for Poles (I am partially Polish but I am born and raised in Romania), but besides some economic benefits it is actually dangerous as it escalates the arms race. In case of a war with Russia, the Eastern European nations will be on the first line and they will suffer, as usually, the worst.

Keep in mind also that in the ex-Warsaw Pact countries there are strong extremist views. They have also strong anti-Russian opinions for historical reasons. Combine these two and you will not get a very objective view on the subject. Some over there even think that US technology can protect them from the Russians. It simply cannot. Besides, I don't know how far would the US really go if shit hits the fan in the region: after the second world war, Romanians waited for a long time for the US to deliver them from the Soviets. But they didn't know then that their fate was already decided at Yalta.

[Strange]

well well, lookee who we got posting here

[Michael]

The "missile shield" is not defensive if it prevents Russia from being able to retaliate from a US first strike, which is one of its uses. NATO should not be expanding at all, especially not into countries bordering Russia.

[Chanchu]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/w ... =12&page=2

"This is not good news for the Czech state, for Czech freedom and independence," said Mirek Topolanek, the former Czech Prime Minister. "It puts us in a position where we are not firmly anchored in terms of partnership, security and alliance, and that’s a certain threat."

[emre]

For what reason exactly would Russia attack the Czech Republic at this point in time?

[grzegorz]

Strange I can only get on here through my phone. None of the Poles I knew ever took this seriously. They just saw their country becoming a pawn on the world stage. One most Europeans don't trust Bush or the States for that matter. Two I think a lot of Poles don't think anyone would come to their defense anyway, they didn't in 1941...No offense to those countries but if Russia wanted them they could probably take them before the world could even react.

[Sprint]

My feeling is this was the result of some bargaining over Iran. The US and Israel - especially, does not want the Russians to sell missile defense systems to the Iranians. Should the Iranians have decent missile defense systems then this would make it very much more difficult for Israel/US to attack Iran's nuclear facilities. So in a quid pro quo the US has (for the time being) retracted it's plans for a missile defense shield in Eastern Europe. But I suspect that as soon as Iran's nuclear capability has been destroyed (Israel will accept nothing less) then the "shield" will be back on the agenda. Israel is the only nuclear power in the Middle East and wants to keep things that way.