WASHINGTON, Dec. 13 (UPI) -- After months of going to and fro, Democratic leaders in both houses of Congress agreed last week not to kill the Bush administration's controversial plan to build an anti-ballistic missile defense base in Poland, but to hem it in with more restrictions.

In fact, the pro- and anti-base positions of Republicans and Democrats alike have a lot more to do with political posturing than hard policymaking. With a new, relatively pro-Russian government led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk just having taken power in Poland, it is almost certain that the base will either never be built, or that the go-ahead for it will be postponed indefinitely.

Aerospace Daily and Defense Report noted Monday that leaders of both parties in the armed services committees of the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate met on Dec. 6 and agreed not to eliminate funding the for the proposed Polish base and its accompanying advanced radar array to be constructed in the neighboring Czech republic. Instead, they OK'd $225 million for initial construction work on both projects.

The total cost of both bases, if they were to be actually built, would probably be nearer $2 billion than $1.5 billion, given the continuing weakening of the dollar against the euro and other European currencies.

But in any case, as Aerospace Daily and Defense report noted, even initial work with the limited approved funding will have to await formal approval from both the Polish and Czech parliaments. And with the new Civic Alliance led by Tusk firmly in the saddle and just having taken power in Warsaw, Polish approval for the crucial base that will hold the 10 ABM interceptors to guard against some future Iranian attack against Western Europe and the United States appears extremely unlikely.