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Czech Senate Approves US Missile Defense Base
PRAGUE, Czech Republic - The upper chamber of the Czech Parliament on Thursday approved a deal with Washington to accept a U.S. missile defense installation.
File picture taken in July 2003 showing an "Osa" anti-aircraft missile battery complex near Belarus's village of Volka some 220 km west of Minsk. Mayors of 30 Czech towns have urged US president-elect Barack Obama to abandon plans to site part of a missile defence shield in the Czech Republic, warning it posed a danger for Europe.
(AFP/File/Viktor Drachev) The deal still needs approval by the lower chamber, where the vote is expected to be close because the governing coalition has too few seats to guarantee passage. That vote is not expected before the end of the year.
The proposed U.S. missile defense system calls for a tracking radar in the Czech Republic and 10 interceptor missiles in Poland as part of a shield designed to protect the region from possible attacks from Iran.
The Senate approved both treaties involved in the deal - the main bilateral treaty allowing the United States to build a radar base near Prague and the second, "complementary," treaty that deals with the legal status of U.S. soldiers to be deployed at the base.
"It is good news for us, Europe and our NATO allies," Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg said.
In each case, 49 senators voted in favor and 31 voted against.
Parliamentary ratification is also needed in Poland.
Russia is fiercely opposed to the plans, saying U.S. military installations in former Soviet satellites threaten Russian security.
It recently threatened to install short-range missiles close to European Union borders in response to the U.S. missile defense plans. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev later suggested that, if Washington were to halt its plans, Russia would do the same.
The administration of President-elect Barack Obama has not commented on the deals brokered under President George W. Bush.
Most of the Czechs and opposition parties are against the missile defense plan and demand a nationwide referendum on the issue.
Jan Tamas, an organizer of numerous public protests against the radar called Thursday's vote "a major setback."
"I believe this day will be remembered as 'Black Thursday' in the history in our country," he said.
9 Comments so far
Show AllISKANDER: Russia's "cheap and effective" response to the missile shield.
Now the Czechs can clean out their old WWII bomb shelters.
Considering what the Russians imposed upon the Czechs after WW2, if I was a czech, I would welcome weapons that may hinder a repeat of August 21, 1968 (there are also the abandoned Russian military bases that are virtual toxic waste dumps). Now if all the hardware from the USA does is piss off the Russians and does not actually work (which is always a possibility, remember the down played later reports of Patriot missile batteries being duds), that is another matter. The difference between appeasement and avoidance is slight.
www.wunderman-comics.com
You might want to think this through a little further. Firstly, 10 anti-missile missiles will not stop tanks rolling across a border. Secondly, this type of brinkmanship after 17 years of peace and zero Soviet Union only inflames and provokes the very thing it is supposedly preventing.
Is there someone here who truly believes that the Czech Republic or Poland is an Iranian target or that the USA and NATO is not encircling Russia?
These "defensive" systems are tied into an offensive nuclear capability aimed at keeping unilateral power by any means. This type of incremental brinkmanship could easily lead to nuclear war if the idiots behind it (those who believed Iraqis would welcome the invasion with rose petals) are not subject to some kind of adult supervision.
http://www.321gold.com/editorials/hellman/hellman102208.html
Sanctuary,
Good post. I haven't read the article Sanctuary linked to, but have read enough at www.globalresearch.ca over the past year or two and about the U.S. military "defence", anti-missile, ... systems for Poland and Romania (I believe to recall the second was Romania anyway) to understand Sanctuary's right, very. Plus we should apply real commonsense, which, if we do, then we can realise without reading even any whole article on these so-called defence systems of the U.S. are damn bad news for the world; not just Russia, and possibly China, but the whole world of planet Earth.
Czechs, some anyway, and extremist ones saying they're Muslims, have been determined to be very much like Al Qaeda, which is to say U.S. allies and instruments for U.S. leadership madness for world conquest and domination in the eastern part of this world. Al Qaeda has, according to evidently real analysts, been said to have been formed by the U.S. too, and I think this was during the President Carter years. Usama Bin Ladin was trained by the CIA, which provided funding and training through the Pakistani ISI, too, some analysts have reported.
The situation definitely is not a simple matter like many people try to make of it, but is simple, quite straight-forward to understand when we consider terms like those Sanctuary said in his or her post.
The U.S., or Western Establishment, could certainly work with Czech extremists in order to work on doing much like Sancutary says.
I believe that we overall know little of the critical details about long past USSR-Czech relations, and to use any injustices committed against Czech's by USSR and/or Ru. to say what's right vs wrong today about the future is not brilliant thinking. Think about the "here and now", think clearly about it and the future; don't let past injustices screw up thinking about the present and future!
And to speak or think like the others who posted in this page, so far, is to again demonstrate U.S. HYPOCRISY. Consider the following very important article, f.e.
"Poverty and Despair: The Failed Policies & Human Rights Violations directed against Native Americans
Fate of Lakotahs Highlights America's Failed Native American Policies
by Stephen Lendman
Global Research, November 21, 2008"
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=11085
Consider that that history is ongoing history. Consider U.S. hegemony and hypocrisy not just with its neighbouring countries, but worldwide. Do that, and then no "American" has a damn leg to stand upon to self-righteously bitch about problems of the past between the USSR and Czechs. But "Americans" are regularly hypocrites and damn ignorant, self-righteous, and so on.
So now we have Cold War II. Russian bombers with nuclear warheads 24/7. And they tell us not to worry about this. When I was a kid we were supposed to be very worried and spend lots of money to defend ourselves from this threat. It's very confusing.
Lets see if Russia puts a missile defense shield in all the countries in South and Central America who are now Russia's new friends. That should put the little deserters panties in a twist.
The majority of Czechs OPPOSE this Neocon missile "shield", which is being used by Washignton to build more and more military bases to occupy Europe with. The corrupt, right-wing neo-McCarthyite regime ruling the Czech Republic does not care about the people's will though - they only serve their masters in Washington. Please sign this petition to show your opposition to their anti-democratic activity: http://www.basesoutnow.org/
The whole thing is crazy. The US military shouldn't be moving east. It should be coming home. The deal between Reagan and Gorby was a demilitarized eastern Europe, not replacement of Warsaw Pact forces with Americans. Russia was supposed to join the West, not be surrounded. There is no threat to Europe from Iran. Appropriate action can be taken in 20-25 years if Iran does become a problem, and Russia would want to be part of the effort. The governments of Poland and Czech Republic aren't boosting security, just painting targets on themselves. At least their citizens can see through the neocon hype that brought us to invade Iraq.
Medvedev and Putin have their hands full tryng to keep Russia on course to integration into the world economy, and don't need neocon meddling feeding their own hard line paranoiacs.
Obama will take a beating from those who believe the US military needs to be everywhere, but he has to stand tall and call this nonsense off.
The Czech people don't want this, but too many of their politicians at least in the upper chamber of the parliament do. Maybe the lower chamber, which tends to be closer to the people, will act to end this madness. This would be best for all. We don't need another grand crusade against and confrontation with Moscow, as it could easily lead to nuclear war. With the expansion of NATO, Moscow isn't at all likely to back down on this one.
AD