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European Voters Say No Thanks to US Missile Plan
ZAJECOV, Czech Republic - The outcome of Saturday's referendum was never in doubt. Residents of this postcard village in the forested hills of central Bohemia voted 728-10 in favor of a resolution that directs the local municipal council to take all necessary steps to block the U.S. government from installing an anti-missile radar in their back yard.
Josef Hruby, mayor of Zajecov and a retired ambulance driver, smiles sheepishly when he admits that there's not much the municipality can do to stop the U.S. project, but the referendum is a fair measure of the grass-roots opposition that will greet President Bush this week as he travels to the Czech Republic and Poland to promote the missile defense shield.
Several other villages in the vicinity of the proposed radar installation have held referendums with similar outcomes. In the Hvozdany municipality, which consists of six villages, 95 percent of voters said "no" to the radar. In Visky, 30 of the tiny hamlet's 31 eligible voters participated in a referendum and unanimously opposed the radar.
The Bush administration's plans for the missile defense shield call for a radar tracking station to be built in the Czech Republic and for 10 interceptor missiles to be placed in Poland. The Czech and Polish governments have signaled their support even though opinion polls in both countries show strong opposition to the U.S. plan.
The missile defense shield is supposed to protect the U.S. and much of the European continent from attacks by Iran and other "rogue states" that do not yet pose a threat. Thus far, the missile defense shield technology has not proven itself reliable. But the U.S. hopes to have the bugs worked out in a few years.
Although the Czech Republic and Poland are NATO members, the Bush administration's approach has ruffled feathers among other NATO countries, especially France and Germany, who wonder why the U.S. appears determined to bypass NATO and instead negotiate bilaterally with Warsaw and Prague.
More ominously, Russia has taken exception to the notion of a U.S. military presence on the soil of two of its former satellites.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice traveled to Moscow last month to tell the Russians that they had nothing to fear from missiles on their border. The U.S. has offered to share intelligence on potential threats, but the Russians were not mollified.
Russian President Vladimir Putin last week accused the U.S. of "imperialism" and authorized tests on a new intercontinental ballistic missile and cruise missile system. On Sunday in an interview published in the Italian daily Corriere della Sera, he warned that Russia would be forced to target its own missiles toward Europe if the U.S. proceeds with its plans.
Looking to America
The eagerness of the Czech and Polish governments to sign up for the missile shield is the clearest indication yet that they view America -- not the European Union or even NATO -- as the ultimate guarantor of their security.
This is particularly true for Poland under the Kaczynski twins -- President Lech and Prime Minister Jaroslaw. Since coming to power in late 2005, the brothers have not missed an opportunity to antagonize the Russians or provoke the Germans. Polish negotiators have said openly that they see the missile defense shield as an opportunity to strengthen bilateral military ties with the U.S.
The Czechs are only slightly more circumspect. In a recent speech, Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek said that building the American radar base on Czech territory would "complete the process" of liberation that began with the departure of the last Soviet soldier on June 30, 1991.
Martin Povejsil, a member of the Czech negotiating team, said "a concrete U.S. presence in the Czech Republic enhances the strategic importance of this country."
But Hruby recalled the words of Vaclav Havel, the hero of Czechoslovakia's 1989 "Velvet Revolution" and its first post-communist president, who promised that no foreign troops would ever again be invited to set foot on Czech territory.
"And now, things should be so different?" Hruby asked.
Local residents, who like to pick mushrooms and go bicycling in the deep pine forest that was a closed military zone during the Soviet era, are asking the same question.
"I was glad when we got rid of the Russians, and I don't want to see another army come in and replace them," said Milan Cizek, 61, a truck driver who lives in Zajecov.
"Why should we be dealing with the U.S.?" he asked. "Lately, the Americans seem to me more like an aggressor than a protector."
'About George Bush'
Petr Plecity, a 33-year-old telecommunications worker, said he voted no because the Czech government had failed to address the health and safety worries related to the radar installation.
"All I want is a healthy and peaceful environment for my children," he said.
Others seemed to oppose the missile defense plan simply because a profoundly unpopular American president favors it.
"In some ways, the referendum is about George Bush and also our unhappiness about what the world became after 1989," said Ondrej Liska, a member of the center-right ruling coalition from the Green Party. "People feel that if they sign up for the radar, they are signing up for Guantanamo."
Some European analysts believe the real objective behind the Bush administration's push on the missile defense shield is to thwart the EU's fledgling effort to establish a common European defense policy.
"It is strange that one would aim to achieve [European] security by dealing with only one or two partners. Whether this is part of a strategy to ignore the multilateral approach, or just a lack of sensitivity, I don't know, but the result is the same: a weakening of cooperation within Europe," Liska said.
Liska, whose party holds the balance of power in the fragile ruling coalition, said he would support the missile defense shield only if it is fully integrated into NATO structures.
Lubomir Zaoralek, the shadow foreign secretary for the opposition Social Democrats, wants a national referendum on the question.
"It's not about one radar; it a basic question about our national security. This is something we have to discuss with our public," he said.
But the government is not about to call for a referendum it knows it would lose. Povejsil, the Czech negotiator, said that complex issues critical to the security and defense of the country should be decided by its elected leaders.
"We are not Switzerland," he said, referring to the bastion of European neutrality where citizens retain the right to vote on all defense-related matters.
Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune
34 Comments so far
Show AllHere we go. Cold War II!
Everyone should know that Czech and Polish elites love to poke a stick in the eye of the hated Russian bear when the opportunity arises, but the irresponsibility of this plan, given that they must be aware of the dishonesty and depravity of the Bush administration, indicates there must be far more here than meets the eye. Possibly the Bush gang has surreptitiously promised certain benefits to particular well-connected Czech and Polish companies or individuals? There must be more to it.
Given that it appears the majority of Czech's are against the missile shield but their Govt will pursue anyway, it seems that the Czech Republic's version of democracy is inching it's way closer to US-styled democracy.
All other European countries are against this missile shield and it creates a tension within the European Union, which Bush certainly enjoys. European citizen by and large think this is a really stupid, 1950's, unnecessary move by Poland and the Czech Republic and that they mainly give in on US pressure. Poland is a real problem country in many ways, a trouble-maker in Europe and a bridge-head for US administration interests. But the last word has not been spoken yet, it's also a test for the European Union.
In the event of a future nuclear war, the towns holding the radar installations would be the first to get hit and turn into cinder and nuclear ashes. Welcome to the U.S. protection.
You ever get the feeling that some of our leaders actually want armaggedon?
There are millions of people who want Armaggedon, probably most of the religious right long for it in a twisted way. They are working on self-fulfilling prophecies and this makes this thinking so dangerous. Seems to be typical for the US, you can't find this dream with Christians in Europe. It does not help to ignore the religious right, they cause too much confuion and trouble and are the backbone of a theocratic society with totalitarian aspects. As Muslims lack an internal debate, so do Christians.
Well, over the next few decades, as pundits and academics find themselves engaging in mindless debates about "who or what started" the second US-Russia cold war, I hope some articulate historians are around to remind the world that it began with Bu$h.
Wasn't it Mr. Putin who stated that the "greatest tragedy" of the 21rst century was "the dismantling of the Soviet Union"? Given such a mindset what do you think were the thoughts of the rulers of Poland and the Czech Republic? If the Russian Bear shook himself awake do you really think that they could rely on the EU or Western Europe for aid (like they did following the rise of Nazi Germany in the 1930's)? Just look where those false hopes got them.
I do not think that the Polish and Czech governments went 'out of their way' to poke the Russian Bear in the eye. They know - from personal experience gained after 40 years of Warsaw Pact membership that you do not go out of your way to goad Russia. I think this was more of 'desperation politics' to bring the 'last remaining superpower' on to their side as insurance against the rebirth of 'Greater Russia'. This certainly may not be the best way to do things, I agree. But given their geographic position, show me a credible alternative.
Stilba,
Not only I have the feeling that Armageddon is present in Bush thinking. It is documented that Ronny had in mind not only when he appointed Watts to be EPA Secretary.
More difficult to explain out motifs of, shall I say agnostics, who did planning during Eisenhower Administration? Now we live in the era, which brings old mythology to the sun shine.
Red Scare? Communist conspiracy? Red Caliphate? It was all about Russia, Imperial or otherwise; the continent size country that was barrier to Destination Manifest starting from Russo-Japanese war. By now it is the Hundred Years War II.
Did Putin promise to re-target missiles on European cities? Are American people aware that nothing changed in their chances to survive nuclear holocaust since alleged victory over Evil Empire? One has to become zombie not to realize that bullying in nuclear age is utmost irresponsibility. Yet the whole ruling class went into zombie state and get used to it.
I was being a bit facetious above, but I'm glad I'm not the only one. Sounds like it's time for us all to watch The Day After or Threads again!
http://mutantshakedown.blogspot.com/2007_02_01_archive.html
Iraq and Iran are considered villians for imposing the threat of nuclear violence???
I don't understand this whole article. What does it matter what Europeans or Russians want? The point is, The Decider has decided that spending a bunch more borrowed money installing an easily defeated anti-missile system in, um, Europe is what's good for Americans and good for the whole world, in which he is the one truly important and all knowing person. Come on, obviously that settles it!
Fortunately, that is well understood in America, so no one even suggests that the people here should have any say in they matter, unlike those crazy people in Europe who think they should have a vote before moving forward on something that could impact their safety, security, and the course of world politics involving their countries.
Besides, we have more important things to worry about, such as yet another general who has come to the controversial opinion that it is not possible to win an occupation, especially when the people being occupied are busy fighting civil wars among themselves while the occupier's mere presence is the best fund raising, organizing, and source of weapons going for some of those doing the fighting. Yeah, imagine that, a general saying we can't even win an occupation any more. Next thing you know, we'll have people from the NFL claiming that the referees can't win a single football game. Oh, how this country has fallen as of late!
From the success of the anti-missile tests so far, these will most probably shoot down Polish Santa Claus, or Peter Panski, if it doesn't miss them altogether
"Sounds like it's time for us all to watch The Day After or Threads again!"
Better yet, "Fail Safe" and "On the Beach", then finish off with Dr. Strangelove so it ends in some laughs.
As a kid starting school and become aware of the world beyond my house near Washington DC in the fall of 1962, I can't think of a greater influence on my life than living with thought that death of me, my family and my neighbors was only a warbling-tone siren away (steady tone meaning tune in - it's not happening yet).
Since the sirens would be tested every month, sometimes I would run home from playing with friends in the woods, thinking it might not be a test. When jet airliners came into widespread use in the 1960's. I would sometimes worry that the rumble in the skies (things were much quieter in those days) was a Russian bomber or missile invasion - just like the referenced blog.
The teacher would hand out booklets with discussions of the effects of a 5 megaton bomb and fallout shelter plans for your basement and backyard. The naive teacher warned us not to read them - just give them to our parents. So, of course, I read it and greatly improving my vocabulary. By 2nd grade, I knew what a millirem was and what the symptoms of radiation sickness were, what distance from the bomb I could expect to be either die by instant vaporization, die under the burning rubble of my house, or die slowly of radiation sickness.
We never built a formal family fallout shelter like some suburbanites, but during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and a couple years afterward, we always kept the basement stocked with these big plastic-lined boxes of water and lots of canned food. The plan would be to run down the stairs with blankets and clothes and stay a corner of the basement.
Recalling all this, I continue to find it stunning that later generations of USAns would allow Bush to scare them to death over a few fanatics, and a dictator presiding over a ruined country 6000 miles away. All of it starting with a one-off suicide hijacking of a few airliners into buildings - maybe 0.02 kiloton of kinetic and chemical energy each plane. Please compare this to the 20,000 or so of hair-trigger bombs totaling 10,000,000 kilotons we had to worry about from 1960 to 1991.
So, if those "terrists" still scare you, please rent a copy of the previously mentioned movies.
The way things look. The US basically does not give a damn about European NATO [Old Europe] but is interested in the NEW Europe [all those nations that contributed to the Coalition of the Willing cakewalk in Iraq}.
Somebody must still believe that most Europeans are fools or suckers. The premise that the system is to prevent Iranian and North Korean missiles is in the same league as the Russians saying they are planning to put in a similar system to prevent Brazilian missiles from hitting Cuba or Florida.
If Iran is a treat why not put the missiles in Israel our ONLY ally in the MIddle East. As far as North Korea's missiles what would make the Koreans send missiles into both OLS and NEW Europe? Would they not be aiming theirs across the Pacific into Washington, Oregon and California, Arizona, Nevada and Texas?
Bush seems intent on punishing OLD Europe for giving him the finger on Iraq and putting a few Poles, Czechs, Latvians, Estonians, Lithuanians, etc,. on the US taxpayers' dole. Given the brains that came with such a plan Americans should worry more about what their present leadership is doing to them than what the Taliban or other assorted barefooted third world groups or nations can do to them.
This is worse than sad. A society of 300 million living in fear of barefooted individuals most of whom cannot even ride a bile. This is truly Harry Potter stuff or is it more Shrek.
The logical response to a defense shield is to build more missiles.
At 95% efficiency 1 in 20 gets through. The rest blow up above the target and will kill slowly by spreading radiation everywhere.
This is MAD times 20. Regular MAD does the job cheaper.
The missle shield wouldn't work anyway. It's just another way of extorting money we don't have from the populace.
We are not Switzerland," he said, referring to the bastion of European neutrality where citizens retain the right to vote on all defense-related matters.
Now,thars what I call a democracy.
Tom Thumb,
Where do you get this idea of Russia as historically belligerent? Who has historically invaded who? Remember Hitler? Remember Napoleon? As far as the post WWII eastern bloc, besides the ideological reasons (the US frequently defending it's "interests" with much more brutal interventions than anything the Russians did), isn't it arguable that after the tens of millions of Russians killed by the Nazi monsters, immediately followed by nuclear-armed bellicosity from Truman and Churchill, that the Russians may have wanted a good-sized buffer of cooperating nations?
Yankee go home!
PJD:
Russia not historically belligerent? My, you should study your history prior to Napoleon!
Czarist Russia was one of the three great powers (the other two being Austro-Hungary and Prussia) that completely dismembered the Commonwealth of Poland and Lithuania in 1795 and insured that Poland/Lithuania did not exist again as independent countries until aftef WW1.
Soviet Russia not belligerent? What about the Russo-Polish war of 1920-21? Try reading Norman Davies 'White Eagle/Red Star' and tell me who the aggresor was.
How odd that you only mention the Nazi monsters in Russia. It is a moot historical point over who was the greater murderer ... Joe Stalin or Adolf Hitler. Or have you forgotten about the millions of Russians that perished in the Gulag, that were destroyed during the Great Purges of the 1930s or starved to death during the (artificial)collectivization famine in the Ukraine? Check out the numbers of Poles, Lithuanians, Latvians and Estonians that were deported to Siberia by the 'benevolent Russians' thanks to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact - and while you are at it check out the Katyn massacres ...
Buffer zone? Do you really think the Central European countries WANTED to become part of a 'buffer zone' beside the Soviet Union and wholly dominated by the Soviet Union? Do you think the Poles fought in the Battle of Britain, at Cassino, Arnhem and Normandy so their country could be dominated the Russians for the next fourty years? Think again.
"The Day After' was a film made funded by 'friends' of the Reagan Administration as propaganda"
Did you actually watch it the night it was broadcasted? As someone who did, I can assure you that no one took the movie that way, after the movie, there were hotlines to calm jittery people, and a Ted-Koppel moderated debate between Carl Sagan and William F. Buckley jr.
Absolutely no one took it as "that wasn't so bad".
Yep, sure welcome to see that there are so MANY people in those countries opposing this hellbent Bush or Cheney-Bush plan. I appreciate learning of this level of HEART, and MIND.
But how the do we get their so-called democratic leaders to fall in line with THE PEOPLE'S WILL? It's the same almost everywhere; democracy is nothing but junk. This world is full of people demanding democracy, and where they ever got that notion from I don't know, for I don't know of any so-called democracy that's worth spit on a shoe or boot. Well, it was GOOD in Haiti, but that REAL democracy was killed by anti-democratic democracies; etc. And that "theme" isn't about to end anytime soon, not of the anti-democratic "democracies" keep having their way anyway.
Still, it's great to learn that 95% and more of Czechs and Polish oppose this hellbent US shield in Europe. At least The People have made their voices known. Now it is up to the jack-asinine politicians to get themselves in rightful gear.
Perhaps VERY unlikely, but it'll be only their fault; theirs alone, now. The People have spoken!
I hope nobody out there ruins their life by trying to sabotage any of these installations. The Missile Shit - as it should properly be called - is absofuckinglutely impossible, and will never work, period. Google Theodore Postol at MIT. While admittedly "to the right of Attila the Hun" (as he once told me after a lecture he'd given on star wars) he argues convincingly that nothing is easier than to surround a real warhead with loads of dummies. Any nation that can launch missiles can launch dummies (they're extremely cheap). The key to understand this is that there is a) very little time to home in on and deal with incoming targets and b) fundamendally limited information about the targets (just a shapeless point of light). In essence, our detection technology has no time and no clue to tell dummies from warheads, and consequently fails at neutralizing them. We lose. Simple as that. It's basic physics. It should be noted that in the fraudulent 'tests' performed by the military where no detection of warheads from dummies was required the shoot down failed most of the times. In China they put high level managers to death if they commit fraud on this order of magnitude, here they just award them with incomprehensibly large budgets. I'd be content with jailing them for life.
A constructive idea might be to start a campaign to discourage students, post docs, and profs from entering the field: it's hopeless, cynical, inhumane, and a waste of talent.
Just because it doesn't work for what Bushie says doesn't mean it doesn't work. It tracks radar, its own? Land appropriation? Money for bed fellows, Slut!? What? Follow the money! Just get it away from congress then who cares? Right? Bush would screw his mom in the ear if she didn't have that crap in her mouth.
Please let Poland and the Czech Republic leave the European Union if their intention is to bring us back to the Cold War.
'The Day After' was a film made funded by 'friends' of the Reagan Administration as propaganda to try to convince people that they could walk out of a nuclear shelter into a lovely day shortly after a nuclear bomb was dropped locally. It was widely advertised by the Republican media and presented an unbelievably deceptive picture of how people nuclear warfare really 'isn't so bad'.
The film was made because the Republicans planned to revive nuclear warfare, feared (justifiably) big public resistance to the idea, and so needed a pop film to anesthetize the masses. The film unfolded like a high-school class play and at the end left most viewers educated on the facts of nuclear warfare in disbelief and outrage.
The message seemed to be 'Don't be afraid. It's just a little old Nuclear Bomb. It won't hurt ya!'
Bush is more warped than Reagan, and a Sociopath ready to blow up America if he can't have it his way, like a mean little brat. Start Impeachment Trials and their accompanying investigations now, because it's too dangerous let the Freak keep running loose! He's playing with NUCLEAR WAR, and doesn't seem to care what happens to the rest of us.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice traveled to Moscow last month to tell the Russians that they had nothing to fear from missiles on their border.Isn't this similar to the same thing Kruschev told JFK about the missils he wanted to put into Cuba?
We need these weapons of mass destruction. They're part of the Bush plan for expansion of the empire.
Shane June 4th, 2007 12:30 pm
Given that it appears the majority of Czech's are against the missile shield but their Govt will pursue anyway, it seems that the Czech Republic's version of democracy is inching it's way closer to US-styled democracy.
Hi Shane, you hit the nail on the head. I can tell you about the situation in Hungary but the Czech Republic sholdn't be much different. Anyway, democracy is the same here as over there. We have two big parties, they are the Hungarian Socialist Party (read Democratic Party) and "The Association of Young Democrats - Hungarian Burgeois Party" (read Republicans). The real rulers are the big corporations. What I read about the American Congress etc. is strikingly similar to our situation.
Between 98 and 2002 we had "republican" prime minister. He (kind of) thrashed the Constitution and the further "democratic" regime just kept on doing the same. However, I have to tell you that we haven't gone in this process that far as the Americans. Bush is almost an omnipotent ruler compared to our prime ministers.
The so-called purpose of the system as proposed is obviously a lie. Its location, in the farthest North of Europe outside of Scandinavia, is clearly not directed toward Iran, unless the Bush Adminstration now believes that the heart of Europe now lies between Copenhagen and Helsinki. The system faces Russia, and the installation is obviously designed to extend that profoundly silly Reaganesque boondoggle, "Star Wars," to lay the groundwork for a new incarnation of the same, outfitted with "new and improved" Anti-Ballistic Missiles, transparently meant to intimidate and threaten Russia.
Why would anyone in the world be credulous enough to believe that US explanations about their motives can be trusted in this, when their past record of falsehoods and distortions is plain to see? Why doesn't anyone bring up the fact that the Czech Republic and Poland (or their leaders) have undoubtedly been bribed to allow this?
Clearly, the Russians aren't fooled, although I do think that they should raise the issue of Bush unilaterally withdrawing the USA from the ABM Treaty between Russia and the USA on June 13, 2002, six months after giving the required notice of intent. In that context, the proposed ABM site in former Warsaw Pact territory is vicious provocation, and seems well-designed to provoke the sort of nuclear conflagration for which the Bush Administration has prepared internal detention camps and a plan for a US dictatorship for life under the current President.
Oh! Wait! That's George W. Bush, isn't it?
What a nightmare! Obviously the Czech ruling class has been bought off. I wonder how long it will take the Czech citizenry to rise up and throw their traitors out of office. They are showing a lot more intelligence than their american counterparts anyway. When is the EU going to wake up and stand up to the US?
Ah, yes, the Czech Republic. Their founding hero is Vaclav Havel, a second-rate author/victim and first-rate USA-suckup . . . and in terms of sensible government, things have gone downhill ever since.