Poland, US agree on missile shield terms

Poland, US agree on missile shield terms

the right-wing christian radicals in charge of the u.s. know that this move will be a destabilizing event. the world didn’t end after the new millenium began. if it doesn’t end,then christianity is a lie. they would rather kill us all than to admit they’re wrong.period.

Would imagine the fact that Poland depends on Russia for its natural gas supplies has a lot to do with it...
:cool:
Poland rejects U.S. missile shield offer
Fri Jul 4, 2008 - Poland spurned as insufficient on Friday a U.S. offer to boost its air defenses in return for basing anti-missile interceptors on its soil but said it remained open to talks with Washington.

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The decision by Poland, a staunch NATO ally, is a setback for the Bush administration drive to counter perceived threats from what Washington calls “rogue states," particularly Iran. “We have not reached a satisfactory result on the issue of increasing the level of Polish security," Prime Minister Donald Tusk told a news conference after studying the latest U.S. proposal.

“The aim of the negotiations, in my view, is to enhance the security of our country. We still agree that it is fundamental for us to maintain our alignment with the United States, which has been, is and will continue to be our strategic ally." In Washington, the State Department said it was studying Tusk’s remarks closely.

“Poland remains a close and important ally of the United States," Sean McCormack, a department spokesman, said in an e-mailed statement. “We remain in negotiations with Poland and do not plan to comment publicly on the details." Tusk, without disclosing full details, said Washington was proposing to put Patriot batteries on Polish soil for one year.

More [url:
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSWAR00706220080704[/url]

Granny says, “Tell the Russkies to stick it...
:p
US And Poland Set Missile Deal
August 14, 2008 WASHINGTON — The United States and Poland reached a long-stalled deal on Thursday to place an American missile defense base on Polish territory, in the strongest reaction so far to Russia’s military operation in Georgia.

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Russia reacted angrily, saying that the move would worsen relations with the United States that have already been strained severely in the week since Russian troops entered separatist enclaves in Georgia, a close American ally. But the deal reflected growing alarm in countries like Poland, once a conquered Soviet client state, about a newly rich and powerful Russia’s intentions in its former cold war sphere of power. In fact, negotiations dragged on for 18 months — but were completed only as old memories and new fears surfaced in recent days.

Those fears were codified to some degree in what Polish and American officials characterized as unusual aspects of the final deal: that at least temporarily American soldiers would staff air defense sites in Poland oriented toward Russia, and that the United States would be obliged to defend Poland in case of an attack with greater speed than required under NATO, of which Poland is a member.

Polish officials said the agreement would strengthen the mutual commitment of the United States to defend Poland, and vice versa. “Poland and the Poles do not want to be in alliances in which assistance comes at some point later — it is no good when assistance comes to dead people,” the Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, said on Polish television. “Poland wants to be in alliances where assistance comes in the very first hours of — knock on wood — any possible conflict.” A sense of deepened suspicions — and the more darkly drawn lines between countries in the region — were also apparent in the emotional reaction from Russia.

“It is this kind of agreement, not the split between Russia and United States over the problem of South Ossetia, that may have a greater impact on the growth in tensions in Russian-American relations,” Konstantin Kosachyov, chairman of the foreign affairs committee in the Russian Parliament, told the Interfax news agency on Thursday in Moscow. South Ossetia is the pro-Russian enclave inside Georgia where Russia sent troops last week, following a military crackdown by the pro-Western government in Georgia.

[url=http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/15/world/europe/15poland.html?ref=world:
MORE[/url]

U.S.' Gates Scoffs at Russian Warnings to Poland...
:p
Gates: 'Russia Is Not Going to Launch Nuclear Missiles at Anybody'
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - August 17, 2008 - Defense secretary, on “This Week," dismisses “empty rhetoric” on Poland missile shield.

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Pentagon chief Robert Gates dismissed as “empty rhetoric” on Sunday Russian warnings that Moscow would target Poland for a possible military strike because Warsaw agreed to host part of a U.S. missile shield. “Russia is not going to launch nuclear missiles at anybody," Defense Secretary Gates said on ABC News' “This Week." “The Poles know that. We know it." Col-General Anatoliy Nogovitsyn, deputy chief of the Russian general staff, told Interfax on Friday that Russian military doctrine would allow for a possible nuclear strike, after Warsaw agreed to deploy 10 interceptors at a site in Poland as part of the missile shield.

This was “strident rhetoric and probably fairly empty rhetoric," said Gates, a former CIA director and expert on Russia. “I’m not quite sure why this deputy chief of staff felt compelled to make those kinds of threats," Gates said, adding that the threat was a throwback to the days of the old Soviet Union, when Moscow was Poland’s overlord in the Warsaw Pact. Poland is now a member of the NATO alliance. Warsaw agreed on Thursday to host the 10 interceptors after Washington agreed to boost Poland’s air defenses. The Czech Republic agreed to host a radar for the shield, although both countries' parliaments must approve the agreements.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told “Fox News Sunday” she would go to Warsaw this week to sign the missile shield deal, after attending a NATO meeting in Belgium on Tuesday. Washington says the shield will be aimed at protecting the United States and its allies from long-range missiles that could be fired by Iran or groups such as al Qaeda. The Kremlin has long disputed this, and opposed the planned shield as a threat to Russia. Russia’s nuclear arsenal includes more than 5,000 ballistic warheads.

More [url:
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=5598124[/url]