BERLIN, Feb. 21 (UPI) -- Poland and the Czech Republic are both likely agree to U.S. anti-missile installations on their territory, despite the controversy involved.
"We have agreed that our response to the (U.S.) offer will most likely be positive," Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek said this week at a joint news conference in Warsaw with his Polish counterpart, Jaroslaw Kaczynski.
Washington claims the defense system, which plans for ten bunker-protected rockets to be stationed in Poland and a radar unit in the Czech Republic, is to protect the United States and its allies against long-range rockets armed with nuclear warheads fired by the likes of North Korea and Iran. But Moscow sees the missiles as threats against its territory, and questions whether their installation in Europe makes sense at all.
Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the system provoked a new arms race, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Ivanov said if Iranian missiles were to be intercepted, the system would make much more sense if it's placed in Turkey, Afghanistan or Iraq.
Kaczynski defended the plan, claiming the anti-missile system would not be "aimed against any 'normal' country," but against rogue states.
In a joint article published in the Polish daily Rzeczpospolita Monday, both leaders pleaded their case for the controversial project.
"Joining the missile defense system will serve as passive protection from attacks ... for all members of the transatlantic community," they wrote, according to Deutsche Welle Online.
Germany's Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung last week told the foreign press corps in Berlin he supported the system, as it could help protecting Europe, but added that Washington should have consulted with Moscow ahead of making official requests to Poland and the Czech Republic. He added that NATO should think about getting involved in the project.
Experts are unsure, however, if Washington would allow that, and if the system would indeed protect Europe.
Ottfried Nassauer, head of the Information Center for Transatlantic Security, a Berlin-based think tank, told German Deutschlandfunk radio station that Washington would not allow NATO in the boat as that would mean "NATO would collectively have to push the fire button."
He added that NATO participation wouldn't make sense for Europe as the system was designed exclusively to protect American territory.
"This system is no system that is designed to fend off short- and medium-range missiles," he said. "In that area, NATO has its own projects, for example the German-American anti-rocket system MEADS, as well as also projects against missiles with a range of up to (1,800 miles)."
Iran, most experts say, is at least 20 years away from obtaining long-range missiles that could hit the United States. Washington is currently testing its missile system in Alaska, where 14 rockets (later 21 rockets) are stationed to defend continental America. The rockets would intercept incoming missiles from North Korea and destroy them with a direct hit. The system, which Washington hopes to be operational by 2011, is still far from perfect, as several tests have failed -- a fact that irritates experts.
"Billions are invested and it is still unclear if the threat, against which it is directed, will ever exist, and it is equally unclear if the system itself will ever work," Nassauer said.
The general public in Poland and the Czech Republic does not agree with its governments: In both countries, a large majority opposes the missile plans for their countries (also Czechs don't seem to bother with a radar station).
Polish Deputy Prime Minister Andrzej Lepper has also rejected the project and has publicly lobbied for a referendum to decide the issue.
For many observers, the rift with Russia that has been created is the system's biggest problem. When NATO planned its expansion into the East, it had guaranteed Russia it would not station any important military capacities on the new members' territory for the long-term, Nassauer said.
Now Moscow feels justly betrayed, he added, "because the Americans are right now breaking this promise."
