Posted on 05/21/2006 10:41:16 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
May 22, 2006
U.S. Is Proposing European Shield for Iran Missiles
By MICHAEL R. GORDON
WASHINGTON, May 21 — The Bush administration is moving to establish a new antimissile site in Europe that would be designed to stop attacks by Iran against the United States and its European allies.
The administration's proposal, which comes amid rising concerns about Iran's suspected program to develop nuclear weapons, calls for installing 10 antimissile interceptors at a European site by 2011. Poland and the Czech Republic are among the nations under consideration.
A recommendation on a European site is expected to be made this summer to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Pentagon officials say. The Pentagon has asked Congress for $56 million to begin initial work on the long-envisioned antimissile site, a request that has run into some opposition in Congress. The final cost, including the interceptors themselves, is estimated at $1.6 billion.
The establishment of an antimissile base in Eastern Europe would have enormous political implications. The deployment of interceptors in Poland, for example, would create the first permanent American military presence on that nation's soil and further solidify the close ties between the defense establishments of the two nations.
While the plan has been described in Congressional testimony and in published reports, it has received relatively little attention in the United States. But it is a subject of lively discussion in Poland and has also prompted Russian charges that Washington's hidden agenda is to expand the American presence in the former Warsaw Pact nation.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Your risk is going up even higher if you do something stupid.
prompted Russian charges that Washington's hidden agenda is to expand the American presence in the former Warsaw Pact nation.
If this is a hidden agenda it is the worst kept secret in recent memory. Of course we want to expand American presence in Poland. They are a true ally and are welcoming us with open arms. Leave it to the NY Slimes though to try to paint it into some sort of devious, underhanded foreign policy maneuver though.
I was in the process of posting the piece with the least negative material excerpted (about one sentence) and with information to debunk it.
It takes time to find old news to debunk the anti-defense propaganda of the popular press.
Great idea! Sell Europe a bunch of missiles to pay some bills for our defense contractors and then bomb the crap out of Iran. There's a buck to be made here.
Agreed. Poland rocks!
(And their female soldiers are babes as well)
>>The final cost, including the interceptors themselves, is estimated at $1.6 billion.<<
Why are we paying for this instead of europe?
1. Only Poland is wanting to host the systems for now. Britain, France and Germany don't want any country to have an anti-ballistic missile defense system.
2. The New York Times might not be honest in its implication that we are paying for the whole thing.
3. If we did pay for it, that would be better than paying enemies to avoid nuking us in the future. And it would be far less expensive to stop Russian ICBMs, for example, from Poland than from here.
>>>and has also prompted Russian charges that Washington's hidden agenda is to expand the American presence in the former Warsaw Pact nation.
That is probably so. I doubt that Warsaw is high on the mullahs target list compared to New London or Seattle. I can however see more sense to this if unannounced long range plans are that Poland will be housing a much higher % of American forces then have so far been projected. A shield protecting those bases would then be comforting.
If that isn't the case I'd prefer those ten additional interceptors be protecting CONUS.
That is the crux of the matter. Anti missile defense systems in Poland would knock out Russian (and former Soviet satellite states') outgoing missiles as well as Iranian incoming missiles. It means we could stop Russia from launching missiles at Europe or the middle east. It would (help) neutralize any Russian missile threat westward or southbound.
If virtual border walls for America are supposed to work, then why doesn't the President suggest a cheaper virtual shield over new Europe?
and yet the american border is DEFENSELESS???????
Missiles does not vote. Iranians do not vote, but Hispanics do.:)
And you would know about the Polish female soldiers HOW? ha.
Are you kidding? I had a bunch of pics of 'em that were posted on a FR thread during the war that were bookmarked. They're all gone by now, though.
Quite yummy, too!
Glad to see we are supporting our allies...the rest of Europe is rabidly anti-American..its their arrogance.
Well, one can easily understand the Poles welcoming an American commitment such as the anti-ballistic missile shield: they certainly don't like or get along with their immediate Eastern and Western neighbors, and their experience in trusting the guarantees of the British and the French has been less than optimal. I suppose that we owe them at least this one in thanks for raising the 1683 siege of Vienna.
'and their experience in trusting the guarantees of the British and the French has been less than optimal.'
Go and ask some Poles old enough to remember the war what they think of Britain. 1st September 1939 Hitler invades Poland, 3rd September 1939 Britain declares war on Hitler to help their ally Poland. December 11th 1941 and the US finally declares war on Germany 26 months after their ally Poland was invaded, despite huge polish-american communities in the US. What was left of the Polish army (some 195,000) evacuated to Britain and placed themselves under British command and fought with great honour and tenacity. Many made their homes in Britain after the war. Ask those poles what they think of Britain and you will get a much more positive view of Britain than of the US that ignored their plight for over two years.
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