An American Missile in Poland?

Those who thought Poland's contribution to the Iraq war was too much brown-nosing to America on Poland's part are in for another disappointment. This time, however, Poland is not alone in wanting to get on Washington's good side - the Czech Republic is just as eager, with Warsaw and Prague jumping all over each other to see who can serve Uncle Sam first.

What's the fuss about this time? The U.S. missile defence system, pessimistically dubbed "the son of Star Wars," which aims to protect the United States and Europe from missiles coming from the Middle East. While the idea seems beneficial in theory, in reality many experts doubt both the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed shield. Several tests have already failed, and factors required such as early warning, accuracy and multiple shots might not be available in the case of an imminent attack. At the moment, the shield is designed to be used against attacks from countries with limited missile programmes, for example North Korea and Iran. It would be powerless against an attack from a larger, better armed country like Russia, not to mention nuclear attacks.

Nonetheless, Moscow is a bit pissed off about all of this, to say the least. While concrete negotiations have not started yet, the American plan calls for a radar station to be located in the Czech Republic and for interceptors to be built in Poland. Though both countries have tried to distance themselves as much as possible from Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia sees an embryonic missile defence shield in the Czech Republic and Poland as an "an obvious threat" against its own security. It's no surprise that Moscow is jumpy about the installation of US missiles in countries so close to its western border, as tensions in the area have historically been high. Russia has even threatened consequences for both nations if the plan goes through.

But Moscow's threats aren't scaring Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who announced today that negotiations on the country's hosting of the U.S. missile defence sites could begin in a "short time, counted in weeks." The comments resulted from the PM's meeting with the U.S. Ambassador to Poland, Victor Ashe, on Monday. Kaczynski believes the plan will be beneficial to Poland, increasing its own security through hosting the site. In fact, Poland's safety will be a serious part of the forthcoming negotiations. And yet Poland's historic threat from the East, Russia, has recently warned that Poland and the Czech Republic risked being targeted by Russian missiles if they agreed to host the U.S. bases.

One must ask in all of this whether good (de)fences really make good neighbours, or rather just a neighbourhood of scared, paranoid citizens?