Czechs oppose US missile plan.

This is from the News. This poll confirms what has been obvious for a long time in the Czech republic. Perhaps the government will listen one of these years. Probably the next election year!





Czechs oppose US missile plan



Wednesday, January 09, 2008
PRAGUE, Czech Republic: Most Czechs continued to oppose plans to place parts of a US missile defence system in the country, according to a poll released on Tuesday.

According to a public poll conducted by the CVVM agency, 70 per cent of respondents oppose the idea of hosting a missile tracking radar system at a base in a military area near Prague as part of the system.

The government-sponsored agency said a total of 1,056 people aged 15 and older were questioned between Dec 3-10, with 23 per cent approving the plan. Seven per cent were undecided.

The latest result of the poll conducted by the agency six times last year indicated the highest number of opponents so far. In April and November, 68 per cent of respondents were against the missile defence base.

The US is in talks with the Czech government about the missile plans. Washington also wants to place 10 interceptor missiles in Poland as part of a defence shield that US officials say is needed to protect against a possible threat from Iran. The Czech government has been receptive to the proposal, which has been strongly opposed by Russia. Opposition parties have demanded a national referendum on the issue.

New Intelligence re Iran complicates selling Missile Defense Plan

No one not completely bamboozled by Bush admin. lies ever thought that the missile defense scheme was directed at Iran. Originally North Korea was mentioned as well. Gee. Why not Cuba or Venezuela? Russia regards itself as the main target and why not? It makes much more sense, if there is any sense to the project at all. Anyway the removal of much of the rationale doesn't change the administration's mind. If the rationale is just a lie in the first place that makes perfect sense.
This article does not mention that majorities in both Poland and the Czech republic are against playing a role in the system. With a new government in Poland the US may have even more trouble getting Polish co-operation.


US Presses on With Missile Defense Plan
By DESMOND BUTLER, Associated Press Writer

Thursday, December 6, 2007

(12-06) 10:04 PST WASHINGTON, (AP) --


The United States says it will not alter plans to build a missile defense system in Europe despite findings by U.S. intelligence agencies that Iran does not have an active nuclear weapons program.


Since U.S. officials have said the threat from Iran was the main reason for building the defense shield, however, the Americans may have a harder time persuading European allies that it still is necessary.


Already, a Czech official responsible for explaining the need for the missile defense system to the public in his country says his job has become more difficult after Monday's release of the National Intelligence Estimate on Iran. The report, reflecting analyses of all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies, concluded that Iran suspended its attempt to build a nuclear weapon four years ago.


"Czech newspapers are full of headlines saying there is no longer a need for missile defense," said Tomas Klvana, the Czech government's coordinator for missile defense communication, who is in Washington for talks with administration officials and lawmakers. "It is hard for complex arguments to win against simple headlines."


The proposed system would include radar installations in the Czech Republic and interceptors based in Poland.


Klvana says the potential threat from ballistic missiles aimed at Europe remains, whether Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons or not.


That view is shared by the Bush administration.


"The missile threat from Iran continues to progress and to cause us to be very concerned," said Undersecretary of State John Rood, lead U.S. negotiator on European missile defense issues. "Missile defense would be useful regardless of what kind of payload, whether that be conventional, chemical, biological or nuclear."


Rood said the United States still hopes to build the system, which would include radar installations in the Czech Republic and interceptors based in Poland and have it online by 2013.


The United States has said that those sites were chosen to position the system to counter a threat from Iran, but Russia has objected strenuously to the plans, arguing that the system could undermine the deterrence of its nuclear arsenal. The disagreement has led to the worst friction in U.S.-Russian relations since the Cold War.


On Tuesday, Rood reiterated the U.S. position on the threat from Iran in talks with one of the most vocal critics of the U.S. plans, Russian Army Chief of Staff Gen. Yuri Baluyevsky. Baluyevsky is in Washington at the invitation of his U.S. counterpart, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen.


Rood has pointed to Iran's announcement this month that it has manufactured new missiles with a range of 1,200 miles. That distance would put parts of southeastern Europe in targeting range. U.S. officials have said they recently provided Russia with intelligence on the developments in Iran's missile program.


Rep. Ellen Tauscher, the California Democrat who a heads a congressional panel that has steered money bills for U.S. missile defense programs, also says the National Intelligence Estimate will not affect funding considerations for the project.


"The NIE does not play into our consideration," she said. "Nothing has changed."


Tauscher successfully pushed to withhold financing for construction of the site in Poland in a bill passed last month that provided most of the money requested by the Bush administration for the overall program. She says she would consider seeking to restore it in future legislation if the interceptor system were tested properly and if the administration won approval for the plans from the Polish and Czech governments.


That effort now seems more complicated by a perception in those countries that the administration has oversold the threat from Iran.


"The United States has been adamant in not tying missile defense plans in Europe to a threat from Russia," says Julianne Smith, director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies' Europe program. "If you knock down the threat from Iran, it complicates the communications strategy."

Czech and Polish support for missile defence bases

As in the US citizenries opposition to the Iraq war opposition to the base is 60 to 70 percent but the government pays no attention but is eager to kowtow to Bush in the hope of a friendly gesture such as easier entry to the US.

For U.S. Base, Bush Finds Czech Enthusiasm, Polish Reserve

by Zoltán Dujisin
U.S. President George W. Bush this week discussed a U.S. missile base in Eastern Europe with Polish and Czech officials, but the results were merely words, and the two European countries showed some naivety as international players.

There were great expectations from two of Washington's most faithful allies, but the young democracies revealed, each in their own way, that they are still learning how to deal with the world's superpower.

During Bush's short stopover to meet with Polish President Lech Kaczynski Friday, both officials insisted on their commitment to the project that would place a radar in the Czech Republic and an antimissile base in Poland to protect the "free world" from missile attacks by "rogue states."

But Polish backing for the project comes amidst growing concern by pundits and the media alike that Warsaw's faithful support and military contributions to U.S. interventions abroad have not been reciprocated by Washington – which does not allow Poles to enter the United States without a visa.

Radowlaw Sikorski, former minister of national defense, was clear in reminding Poles that "Iraq and Afghanistan were our gestures of friendship towards the United States. The shield will be another gesture. The time has come for a tangible gesture of reciprocity."

The discussions were, however, given a jolt by a surprise offer from Russia – which had until now staunchly opposed the missile defense project, doubting the rationale given – to Washington to build the infrastructure at its radar station in Qabala, Azerbaijan.

Bush promised to study the "interesting" proposal.

"The surprise proposal really changed a lot. The Eastern European visit might not be important after this," Jan Drahokoupil, analyst at the Czech Economy and Society Trust, told IPS. "We have to wait to see what [President Vladimir] Putin's proposal actually means."

But Russia has already announced what rejecting its offer would mean: "If the Americans turn down this Russian proposal on some pretext, then it will be clear once and for all that the true target of their project is not only a hypothetical Iranian or North Korean threat, but also to limit Russia's nuclear potential, which we could have guessed earlier," Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of the State Duma's international affairs committee, said in a press conference.

The short visit to Poland was markedly different from Bush's reception in Prague, where the Czech political elite proved its honeymoon with the freedom-preaching United States still resonates in a country deeply resentful of its communist past.

With a few exceptions, Czech media proudly celebrated Bush's choice of Prague to kick off his European tour, despite strong grassroots opposition to the radar base.

The visit "brought the public media discourse in the Czech Republic back to the era of Normalization (post-1968 communist rule in then Czechoslovakia). It was similar to the coverage of Brezhnev's visit to Czechoslovakia," Drahokoupil told IPS.

"Czech political commentators agreed how important the country became as a result of the visit. There was absolutely no critical reflection, just adoration, and Czech organizers did not even allow questions in the press conference," the analyst said.

The latest polls suggest public opinion did not change as a result of the visit, with opposition to the radar remaining at 60 to 70 percent of those surveyed. "If media propaganda is too direct, it has little effect," Drahokoupil added.

But Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek warned his passive population that Europe's lack of will to defend itself had been its biggest problem throughout the past century. A few days before, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Vondra insinuated that Czechs could be facing compulsory military service if they reject the radar.

The prime minister is concerned over plans to hold a referendum on the radar. Opposition parties and even smaller groups in the governing coalition are either against the base or would only allow it within the framework of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

But Topolanek disappointed his own supporters when claiming that the issue of waiving the U.S. visa requirement for Czech citizens traveling to that country was not connected with the stationing of the U.S. base in Czech territory. Instead, he promised advantages in the fields of technologies, science and research in cooperating with the United States.

Yet Bush, well aware of the points he might score with average Poles and Czechs by lifting U.S. visa requirements, promised to convince U.S. lawmakers to follow through.

The U.S. president tried to appease the opposition and much of Europe by promising to coordinate the system within NATO and not just negotiate bilaterally. He also told Czechs there was no need to choose between Russia and the United States, as the Cold War was over.

The event was hardly disturbed by a few small anti-Bush demonstrations in the streets of Prague, but some wanted to make sure he felt at home, to the embarrassment of some of the more sober-minded Czechs.

Concerned that "the Americans could get the feeling that nobody here would remember who liberated the country and then has never occupied it," Czech Defense Minister Vlasta Parkanova tried to charm the U.S. president by offering him a CD with a pro-U.S. song performed by the minister herself.

This was "an illustration of the Czech government's approach to Bush," Drahokoupil told IPS.

The song, which borrows the melody of a famous Czech hit celebrating Yuriy Gagarin's arrival to space in 1961, was televised with images of U.S. and Czech flags, a radar installation and a Czech government building in the background.

"Tell the guys who live on the stars; tell the guys who live in outer space. Tell them that we want to live in peace, but we prefer clothes from Uncle Sam," the minister's lyrics go, before ending with a "we know who has freed us back then in May 1945."

(Inter Press Service)