A demonstrator carries a sign during a protest march against

the possible stationing of a U.S. missile defense radar system

in the Czech Republic, in Prague, May 26.

Novosti, Russia

Bush Gets Taste of Czech Resistance to Anti-Missile Plan

"The likelihood of an asteroid hitting Europe is incomparably higher than a missile attack from Iran."

By Vladimir Simonov

May 28, 2007

Russia - Novosti - Original Article (English)

MOSCOW: At the end of last week, the U.S. president had a chance to see what awaits him in the Czech Republic, where he will visit on June 4th as part of a tour of seven Central and West European countries.

Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Prague in protest against the American plan to deploy military radar south-west of the Czech capital.

The Czech radar installation and 10 interceptors in Poland are designed to create an ABM shield against a hypothetical attack by Iran or South Korea. These plans are expected to move to a more practical plane during George W. Bush's talks with Czech and Polish leaders. But as the demonstration in Prague shows, the opinions of East European governments may differ substantially from prevailing public attitudes.

Judging by recent public opinion polls, three out of five Czech citizens are against the deployment of the American radar system, and four out of five insist that a national referendum should be held on the issue.

Many Czechs as well as Poles don't understand why their nations are more suitable sites for these anti-missile components than Turkey, where such a deployment would make more sense geographically. They dismiss the very idea of a threat to Europe from Tehran or Pyongyang as a bluff, since these countries lack even a missile delivery with the required range.

According to Jan Tamas, an organizer of a protest march in Prague, "The likelihood of an asteroid hitting Europe is incomparably higher than a missile attack from Iran."

And there is something else that concerns people. Even if we assume against all reason that the "international forces of evil" manage to launch a ballistic missile over European territory, the destruction of a nuclear, chemical or biological warhead over the Czech Republic or Poland could be fatal for residents living in those countries. They rightly consider themselves as held hostage to the security of their remote transatlantic ally.

On the eve of Bush's visit, these mounting attitudes are compelling Czech leaders to find more unconventional means of influencing public opinion. Thus Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Vondra warned an audience of millions during a televised debate on May 27, that if Prague turned down the American request on radar deployment, the Czech Republic might have to reinstate the draft.

By his logic, such a refusal would cause Czech relations with its NATO allies to deteriorate. As a result, Prague would be unable to count on their support when Czech security comes under threat. Therefore, the Czechs would be unable to do without mandatory conscription, which was cancelled in 2005.

Opponents of this view point out that for the time being, it is only the United States - and not NATO - which is talking about deploying this system. NATO as a whole has yet to determine its role in this system, and therefore Vondra's warning borders on the intimidation of his countrymen.

At talks during his Czech and Polish visits in June, President Bush will speak from a much-weakened position. Congress has recently stabbed his administration in the back by denying a $764 million request from the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency to fund the construction of interceptor silos in Poland. Without these silos, the radar in the Czech Republic makes no sense. That is, unless it is designed to monitor Russian territory from the West to the Urals, as Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov suspects.

George W. Bush and his team - Defense Secretary Richard Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice - have already sent an indignant letter to Congress, and sooner or later they are likely to overcome the resistance of lawmakers. Vladimir Putin's emphatically negative attitude toward America's anti-missile system in Europe poses a much bigger problem, and President Bush will meet with him at the G8 summit in Germany from June 6-8.

Moscow doesn't understand why Europe is being stuffed with American mini-bases and missile silos at a time when Russia has withdrawn its heavy weapons beyond the Urals, and Putin doesn't believe that this is being done to protect Europe.

At a recent news conference in Luxembourg, the Russian president said that the Americans never even asked Europeans about this plan. Putin said this just looks like "bad manners ."

He insists that the ABM project should be scrutinized by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe  - an institution that was set up for cooperation in the name of a safer Europe.