WASHINGTON, Aug. 15 (UPI) -- It's finally a deal: Poland agreed Thursday to allow the United States to build an anti-ballistic missile interceptor base on its territory.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk made the announcement in Warsaw. His statement capped a half-year of at times rocky, roller-coaster negotiations between Poland and the United States. Poland held out for a huge boost in military aid and the deployment of Patriot anti-ballistic missile systems to protect its territory in the event of any Russian threat. It didn't get everything it wanted, but it got a lot.

The breakthrough was an important achievement for U.S. President George W. Bush, especially coming so quickly as it did after the United States was caught entirely by surprise when the Russian army rolled into the former Soviet republic of Georgia and smashed the Georgian armed forces that the United States has been building up for years. The Russian ground forces swatted the Georgians aside as easily as swatting a fly.

As we have noted in previous columns, Tusk and his Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski had appeared comfortable running out the clock on the negotiations with the Bush administration. But the suddenness and ease with which the Russian army rolled into Georgia -- a key Polish ally because of the crucial oil pipeline from the Caspian basin that crosses Georgian territory -- seem to have concentrated their minds wonderfully.

Russia has been furious about the Bush administration's plans to have Boeing build a base in Polish territory to house 10 Ground-based Mid-course Interceptors capable of shooting down intercontinental ballistic missiles -- ICBMs. The GBIs are meant to protect the Eastern Seaboard of the United States and the cities of Western Europe from one or a handful of ICBMs that might be fired by Iran or some other so-called "rogue" state with nuclear warheads.