Memo to Putie: Up Yours

New Europe™

Prague doesn't want return to Russian sway
The Czech Republic will not ask Russia for permission to site a U.S. radar station on its soil and rejects returning to Moscow's sphere of influence, Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek said on Tuesday.

On a visit to Washington to discuss details of a plan to host part of a U.S. anti-missile defense system, Topolanek said the Czech Republic would cooperate with Russia on many issues but would decide its internal affairs alone.

Heh. Undoubtedly the Left will view this man as an eeeevil, mean-spirited right-wing extremist who's trying to start a war. Or something.

The U.S. administration wants to deploy 10 interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar station in the Czech Republic as part of a global shield against long-range ballistic missiles from "rogue" nations such as Iran or North Korea.

Kremlin officials, saying they believe the shield would be directed against Russia, have threatened to target any parts of the defense system deployed in Poland and the Czech Republic.

Topolanek said Moscow was trying to sow confusion among NATO allies, especially those like the Czech Republic that once were members of the old Moscow-dominated Warsaw Pact and were occupied by Soviet forces during the Cold War.

"We do not want to belong again to the sphere of Russian influence," he said. "We do not want to belong to a group of countries which have to ask Russia for permission if they want to ensure their own defense."

Being part of NATO, which the Czech Republic joined in 1999, allowed Prague to have "at least an equal position with Russia" in such matters, he said.

[...]

Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski, on a visit to Washington earlier this month, said his country had agreed in principle to host part of the system after getting assurances that Washington would help Poland with other defense needs.

Topolanek, in a speech to the conservative Heritage Foundation on Tuesday, said some opposition to the missile defense project had been stirred in Europe by "very skillful propaganda of the Russian federation."

He warned against complacency he said was too common among Europeans who think they will never have to again defend themselves. "Unfortunately I think we are again seeing another ghost in Europe, the ghost of appeasement," he said.

The Nazi Party building at Arcisstrasse 12 (Munich) was built as an office building for Hitler himself, called the Führerbau. In this view, the Führerbau is decorated with French and British flags, for the signing of the Munich Accords in September 1938. (National Archives, RG 242-HB)

Read it all at Reuters

Photo & description courtesy of Geoff Walden's excellent Third Reich in Ruins

Senate Supports Bush

Nancy Pelousi and Fat Jack Murtha must be beside themselves trying to figure out how to blame Bush for this one.

U.S. Senate Assumes Missile Defensive
The U.S. Senate declared it a national policy of the United States to create a missile defense system in Europe. Now, regardless of who wins the election in 2008, the system will be built. A delegation of heavyweight U.S. politicians, headed by Henry Kissinger, visited Moscow on Friday, so as to assure the Russian president that the missile defense system is inevitable. Apparently, Washington also believes that Vladimir Putin will control the situation in Russia no matter who wins the election in 2008.

“The Senate today acknowledged that we must build missile defense systems that ensure we are able to protect our country and our allies,” said Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) on Thursday night, after the U.S. Senate had adopted his amendment to the defense authorization bill for 2008.

According to the new law, creating a missile defense system will now be an official national policy of the United States. Moreover, the law officially proclaims the defense system will be created for counteracting the Iranian threat. This way, the Senate confirmed by law the U.S. administration’s statements that deploying a radar in the Czech Republic and 10 interceptor missiles in Poland is aimed against Tehran only, and not against other countries.

Declaring missile defense deployment to be U.S. state policy was almost unanimous: 90 senators out of 100 present spoke in favor of the amendment (just 5 senators were against, and 5 more abstained). So, the U.S. political forces finally determined their attitude to the missile defense system: both the Democrats and the Republicans support this project.

New York Senator Hillary Clinton, one of the chief favorites of the presidential race among the Democrats, voted for the amendment as well. It means the missile defense system will be built anyway, no matter who wins the presidential election in November 2008.

There she goes again, pissing off the Progressive moonbat base of the party

The Russian authorities could be consoled only by the fact that Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) did not support the amendment. Obama is another favorite of the presidential race, quite capable of competing with Clinton for the Democratic nomination. However, even if Obama wins the 2008 election, his personal opinion will hardly be able to change the White House’s policy on missile defense, considering the present consensus in the U.S. political elite.

There's more.