Instead of radar will there be rockets?
October 25, 2009, By Erica Carlino
What was recently celebrated as a triumph over eight years of Bush tactics may be short lived. On September 17th, the Obama administration released a statement saying that all plans to build a stationary radar base in the Czech Republic and Poland would be canceled. Now, nearly one month from that day, it seems that the administration has played the old bait and switch.
The radar base, which was first proposed in 2007, has been a heated topic in Central and Eastern Europe. Even after countries like the Czech Republic and Poland had agreed to cooperate in such a project, their parliaments never ratified the missile defense treaties. Reasons for this include the overwhelming majority of citizens that are opposed to it.
Now, after what seems no more than a few weeks’ hiatus, the Czech Journal Britsky List writes that the United States will indeed continue with its plans to build the missile defense base. Only this time, the Obama administration has revised the plans from the Bush administration to try and gather approval. The original Bush plan would have placed 10 interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar base in the Czech Republic. For obvious reasons, Russia was strongly opposed to the idea of having missiles in their backyard. The new plan, however, is working to gain Russia’s acceptance. This time the focus will be on aiding European security against the impending nuclear threat – Iran. A series of missiles will be strewn all across Europe and Russia is even being encouraged to participate.
According to Dean Wilkening at Stanford University, the new plan will focus on short and medium range missiles rather than long range missiles and ideally it will be deployed in Turkey, around the Black Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean. The intercontinental missile defense system will remain in central Europe (i.e., Austria, the Czech Republic, and Poland). Although this new plan sounds strikingly similar to the original Bush plan pitched to Central Europe just three years before, it is actually worse. For countries like the Czech Republic who were only housing a radar base, they will now have missiles and for Europe this means missile bases in more countries rather than a few bases in Central Europe.
Despite such observations, NATO has backed plans for the new missile defense system. Experts from the Obama administration have even released various statements that Russia perceives this new project as less threatening. Perhaps Russia hasn’t gotten the memo because according to Czech news, Russia continues to threaten them about their decision to house an American missile base. In fact, a recent announcement from Russia stated that they would be leaving their missiles pointed in the direction of the country.
Brotherly love? If the Obama administration is indeed calling for peace, it seems that endangering Russia’s neighboring countries is not a good way to go about this. With images of the recent Georgia bombings still fresh in our minds, it has been made clear that the United States is in no position to step in when real conflict with Russia occurs. Primarily because this would mean confrontation that neither the US nor Russia is ready for. So why, then, put these smaller countries in such a risky situation? One can’t help but wonder if American foreign policy isn’t egging on a more discreet arms race.
Even more ironic, perhaps, than the Obama administration’s new and improved missile defense plan is the recent comments from Joe Biden. For those countries still hesitant to join the missile project (such as the Ukraine or Georgia – countries that are closest by borders and ties to Russia), Biden offers some valuable advice. He made this comment last week to the Czech Republic.
“It is important to realize that you are in the very middle, and you inspired the world. (he says to the Czech Republic) You are a model, which should inspire the countries in Eastern Europe like the Ukraine and Georgia.”
This statement is altogether unnerving. Anyone who is even slightly aware of Czech history knows that its middle position status has led to its continual concurrence. In the past, when countries such as Poland have fought, the Czech Republic has surrendered. They aren’t quite proud of this pattern. So, with that in mind, could Biden really be suggesting that these other countries submit and let more imperialistic ones conquer? Let’s just hope that he is indeed uninformed about Czech history.
Fortunately, not all of their citizens are so inured. Groups such as Nezakladnam or The NoBases Initiative, as it is called in English, have been actively resisting these plans since 2007. Recently, they have gathered quite a bit of momentum. In cooperation with the Peace Movement and Amnesty International, they can be seen informing the public and marching regularly throughout Prague. It is certain that as long as their will be plans for a missile base these groups will not be taking Biden’s advice. Sorry, Biden. Looks like you will have to find a new role model. This is the 21st century and the Czech Republic would like to break free from the mold of its past.
