A battery of US Patriot missiles and American troops to man it may arrive in Poland in early April. President Lech Kaczynski has signed off on a pertinent bill that was earlier ratified by Poland's lower house of parliament to specify conditions for the stationing of US soldiers in Poland as part of revamped plans for a US missile shield. The initial battery of Patriot missiles and its service company may eventually be augmented by interceptor missiles able to shoot down incoming ballistic missiles, Rossia 24 TV network reports.
http://english.ruvr.ru/2010/02/27/4876460.html
Patriots under scrutiny: three views on missiles in Poland
Under amended plans, the Patriot missile launchers, designed to shoot down planes and cruise missiles, are to be placed just 100 kilometers from the border with Russia’s Kaliningrad region.
Political analyst Vladimir Kozin sees this as threat to Russia’s interests.
“It's a direct threat to Russia's national interests, because these Patriot missiles are just the first step,” said Kozin. “In the long term, the ground-based interceptor systems may appear, which is alarming at a time when we are approaching the signing of START.”
But according to military journalist Viktor Litovkin, the Patriots are not a threat to Russia, as it has no plans to attack Poland or any other country.
“It’s a compensation for the Poles for not placing the strategic missiles, as well as a way to cure Polish phobias,” Litovkin said. “Now it is clear who Poland is afraid of, though it is not clear why.”
Journalist Fred Weir from the Christian Science Monitor suggests keeping the big picture in mind.
“We need to keep in mind that when Obama took that old Bush-era plan off the table, he really reduced the tensions and created the conditions for a new START treaty,” Weir said. “The local problems in Europe – between Russia and NATO – are disturbing, but they are not of the same caliber.”
RT
http://english.ruvr.ru/rtvideo/2010/01/21/video_3763083.html
Bloomington
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Just published: an article by Mark Sedgwick (me) on "The Traditionalist
micro-utopia of *Bloomington*, Indiana," in the *Journal of Political
Ideologies*...
3 days ago
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