How important an issue is America’s missile-defense shield to Eastern Europeans? According to this frustrated op-ed from Romania’s Ziarul newspaper, given the increasingly shrill nuclear threats coming from Moscow, Romania must demand more from Washington to assure its own security – just as Poland and others already have.
“The government of Romania had absolutely no reaction when ‘Putin’s Mace,’ General Yuri Baluyevsky, struck us with a nuclear slap right in the forehead … which proves that the chair under Defense Minister Melescanu’s ass is more important to him than the American anti-missile shield …”
By Igor Drag, Translated By Marcel Iliescu. January 23, 2008
Romania – Ziarul – Original Article (Romanian)Two days ago, Russia, in the voice of General Yuri Baluyevsky, the chief of the Russian General Staff who is also known as “Putin’s mace,” threatened NATO in general, and the Czech Republic, Poland, and Bulgaria in particular, with nuclear bombing. Not even 24 hours had passed before NATO responded: A group of former high-ranking American [and European] military officials argues that a preemptive attack with nuclear weapons represents an “indispensable” tool for NATO . So what have some others who have had their “ears pulled” by Putin done?
According to a statement yesterday by Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, for example, in February Warsaw hopes to reach an agreement with the U.S. about the placement of missile interceptors on Polish territory as part of the American anti-missile shield. The shield, which in Washington’s view is meant to defend the United States and her European allies against problem states like Iran, has affected Polish relations with Russia, which regards the anti-missile system as a threat to its national security. So for its own security, Poland’s new center-right government wants closer ties with the United States, and has expressed its wish that in exchange for Warsaw’s cooperation, Washington boost Polish air defenses with medium- and short-range systems like the Patriot missile.[Polish Foreign Minister] Sikorski said during a radio program that an agreement could come at a meeting in Washington between Prime Minister Donald Tusk and U.S. President George W. Bush next month in Washington, rather than that between Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the Polish Foreign Minister on February 1. “I think the decision should be taken at the highest level, within the Bush-Tusk meeting,” Sikorski said.
And Polish Defense Minister Bogdan Klich recently declared that Poland won’t cooperate with the U.S. unless Washington helps Warsaw improve its air defenses. I have two motives for listing Poland’s policies. Firstly, they are actually doing something and, implicitly, action must be taken before there is anything to discuss. My second motive is that we, being in the same situation as Poland, do nothing, which is something should be discussed.
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