Poland Inks Deal with US on Missile Shield
Georgia-Russian War No Doubt Speeds Up Polish Reservations.
by Staff Writer
August 14, 2008 - For the past two years, there has been much discussion about the nation of Poland adding a close-in defensive missile shield within its borders for the supposed purpose of dealing with any "rogue" missile attack from (presumably) Iran. Most everyone suspected the deal was aimed directly at protecting Poland from her former Cold War owners in Russia. The Russian invasion of South Ossetia in the former Soviet republic of Georgia this past week all but solidified the agreement between Poland and the United States for the system to go ahead with installation - a move that has drawn a power response from Moscow.
Under the deal, Poland will receive 10 Patriot missile batteries, training from United States personnel and tracking radar services from a system based in the Czech Republic - another former Soviet republic and now member of NATO. Though incapable of handling everything thrown at it, the air defense system is quite capable of targeting and eliminating incoming aircraft and missile threats. The setup is expected to be fully operational by 2012.
Though the United States was an ally of Georgia, it did very little in the way of flexing its own muscles as Russian forces moved through the Georgian towns. With forces already stretched thin in Iraq and Afghanistan, the US military had no real possible measure of reacting to help an ally but one wonders if anything would have transpired to escalate the situation between the superpowers to open war. This action did not go unnoticed to the newspapers in Poland which ran front page details of the conflict in Georgia on a daily basis. As a result, Poland also wanted reassurances in the deal that would force the US into action within hours of a Russian attack on Poland. With memories of a World War 2 takeover still fresh in the history books, there's no wonder why that reassurance was needed by Poland.
With the action in South Ossetia winding down, time can only tell the true ramifications of the Russian action in the region and the United States action - or lack thereof. Either way, relations between the two nations are most certainly damaged but one has to wonder if the Cold War ever really ended. |
