US and Poland rush to secure missile defence shield

[RedFox]

More sabre rattling

_http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/poland/2559371/US-and-Poland-rush-to-secure-missile-defence-shield.html

The Warsaw government said that talks with Washington to locate a missile silo in Poland to accompany a radar site in the Czech Republic were almost "at the finishing line".

US negotiations with Warsaw over the project, which would see a silo of 10 interceptor missiles housed in the north of the country, have been dragging on for more than a year.

But in the wake of Russia's advance into Georgia, both America and the centre-Right government of the Polish prime minister Donald Tusk appear determined to cement their alliance and complete the missile shield deal.

"We feel at the moment a greater concern for our safety," said Bogdan Klich, the Polish defence minister, evoking fears of a resurgent Russia widespread in the former Eastern Bloc.

"That's why every installation of the western world on the Polish territory has its meaning, because it anchors Poland more deeply to the West."

While America says the shield is designed to destroy lone-missiles from "rogue states" such as Iran, Russia considers it a strategic encirclement that undermines its nuclear deterrent. If agreed now, the system, which would twin the Polish missile silo with a radar station in the Czech Republic, would be ready by around 2012.

Mr Klich said that Poland and the US were "really at the finish line of these talks" over missile defence, hinting that Washington was finally prepared to meet Polish security demands in return for housing the missile silo.

Most significantly, Poland wants American-run Patriot missile batteries on its territory, in what it considers the best defence against potential Russian retaliation.

"It seems that the Americans have changed their view due to the situation in the Caucasus," Mr Klich said.

"In the eyes of Washington, this conflict has proven that Russia isn't a stable partner and continues to consider its international surroundings as its exclusive sphere of influence."

Analysts suggest that the conflict in Georgia has sent shockwaves through countries that once lay behind the Iron Curtain.

"Appeasement is over," said Carina O'Reilly, European Security Editor of Jane's Defence Weekly. "With Russian tanks rolling into Georgia, there's a feeling [among former eastern bloc states] that the tanks could roll over their borders too.

"There's a certain urgency now."

Mr Tusk, once considered to considerably more Russia-friendly than his Moscow-sceptic predecessor Jaroslaw Kaczynski, is now making that urgency clear.

"Our arguments about the need for a permanent presence of US troops and missiles on Polish soil have been taken seriously by the American side," he said. "The events in the Caucasus show clearly that such security guarantees are indispensable.

"As soon as we are sure that Poland's security has been reinforced to the degree we want, we're not going to wait for hours to sign a deal."

 

[Nienna]

It just never ceases to amaze me how anyone could believe anything that the US government says after all of the lies they have been caught in. That the lies of who attacked who could possibly make Poland rush now to sign the agreement to put US missile shield bases (or so that is what they are calling them) there after having drug their feet for so long just defies any sensible logic.

But, then, logic is never there when the hysteria card is played. :(

 

[marcinciniak]

Hello! :)
I`m from Poland and I was thinking about this antirocket shield. This case is so strange! Yes, I agree, it looks certainly like a lie. It is easier for goverment to act unethicaly for its own purposes. So there is much more that they are telling polish goverment, but what could that be? Well, let me think... : It will be build in over 3-4 years, so in 2012. So, for these 3-4 years Poland will be defenceless to any kind of attack???? But Russia is in Georgia NOW! It they want to "help" Poland, maybe they should "drop in" some army guys? Won`t that be easier and cheaper?? But why would they help Poland anyway? Why? From the bottom of their hearts? Yeah, right! That means, that the antirocket shield won`t help Poland now. Maybe later? But when? Are they overseers? Maybe, maybe not... So, maybe there is another purpose? Cass said, that goverment know about The Wave and Comets, and know that they are coming... maybe THAT is their purpose? What they are trying to do? We will wait and see, and they will stare into space and observe! ;D