US to deploy defensive missiles on Russia's doorstep

Space War ^ | 1/20/2010 | AFP via Space War

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

The United States will deploy Patriot-type surface-to-air missiles in northern Poland some 60 kilometres (35 miles) from Russia's Kaliningrad territory, Poland's defence minister said Wednesday. "Morag was chosen as the location long ago, but we didn't make it public," Bogdan Klich said, quoted by Poland's PAP news agency.

He insisted the choice of the site close to Kaliningrad had "no political or strategic meaning -- its good infrastructure is the only reason."

Home to a Polish military base, Morag could see the Patriot missiles arrive as soon as late March or early April, Klich said.

On December 11, Poland and the United States signed a prerequisite agreement on the status of US troops in the ex-communist eastern European NATO and EU member ahead of the planned Patriot deployment.

During an October 2009 visit to Warsaw by US Vice President Joe Biden, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said his country was ready to join a new US anti-missile system in central Europe.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has said the United States wants to deploy SM-3-type missiles in Poland and the neighbouring Czech Republic in 2015.

Gates's announcement came after President Barack Obama in September scrapped a plan agreed in 2008 to install a controversial anti-missile shield system in the two countries.

The system, promoted by Obama's predecessor George W. Bush, had enraged Russia which considered it a grave national security threat.

[HiTech RedNeck]

So do we chicken out on Poland or don’t we.

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

This is the Kaliningrad Air Defense Zone. Notice that it covers Warsaw.

[flash2368]

So who are these missiles meant to defend against? Poland is not going to attack Russia or any of its neighbors, and Russia is not going to attack Poland.

Only thing this is going to do is further piss off Paranoia Incorporated.

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

We shoule give any technical aid to Poland in light of the Russian threat.

[Ulysse]

JERK !
YOU LIE !

The knee jerker cancelled BUSH’s missile shield in POLAND and CZECH Rep...And now he is flip-flopping again hoping that people will not notice that HE IS A JERKER !

[flash2368]

What Russian threat? The Russians are paranoid, but they are not stupid.

Stalin, Kruschev, & Breshnev are dead. Expansionist Russia is history.

Defense contractors need to just get over it.

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

The Russians want Poland again in their sphere of influence. We should defend Poland.

[flash2368]

Hellllooooo, Poland is in the EU. So Russia is going to attack an EU nation?

Only in a defense contractors dreams.

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

You forgot that Poland is a NATO nation. Under Article 5,

"The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all and consequently they agree that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defence recognised by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area."

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/official_texts_17120.htm

[rbmillerjr]

Were the Georgians considered in your analysis?

[justa-hairyape]

When the Russians want to take Western Europe, they probably wont even need tanks this time. Will just wait until the Global Warming Eco-Freaks are buried in snow and the Russians will just turn off the pipelines. Then they will drive in on snowmobiles, change the flags and turn the pipelines back on. Western Europe on the cheap.

[flash2368]

In case anyone forgot, the idiot in Georgia started that conflict by attacking S Ossetia which has been a disputed area for a long time due to the majority there being Russians anyway. Not even relevant to Western Europe.

Russia is no threat to Poland.. We just have a bunch of defense contractors who long for the good ‘ol days of the cold war. They are a bigger threat to Europe than Russia.

I am not by any stretch saying the Russians are innocent babes in the woods, but after the collapse of the Soviet Union we trashed a once in a century opportunity to make Russia an ally. It was the dumbest ass thing the U.S. has ever done with the possible exception of electing Zero.

[RolandOfGilead]

The Russians want Poland again in their sphere of influence

What does that even mean? That's just an empty phrase.

[spetznaz]

Nice to have Patriots present ...although in terms of real gain it is largely just for show. Russia is not going to attack Poland (being a NATO & EU member), furthermore even if it did a Poland-oriented attack would require a much larger show of force than was the case in Georgia (now Georgia could use some missiles). Thus, a nice move (in terms of warm feelings), but on the larger scope of things really for show. They couldn't even stop a concerted Iskander missile attack on Polish soil.

Now, if Dmitry Medvedev (actually I should say Putin) wanted to do the 'innocent-nasty' (i.e. just say tit-for-tat), what he would do is deploy longest-range version of the S-400 SAM systems in Cuba. He could also say they are for 'defensive purposes.'

Anyways, any NATO nation should be properly armed.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

What Bush wanted to install were long range interceptors and a very long range powerful radar that would have provided an umbrella over most of Europe and imposed a fence blocking shots from the Middle East towards CONUS.

What Obama is installing is strictly a local defense system, something that should easily handle a Scud launched from Bulgaria into Warsaw, but would be worthless for a ballistic missile launched from Iran towards Miami.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Expansionist Russia is history.

Ask Georgia. Russia still has a vast array of nuclear weapons and a military vastly superior to any of its neighbors except China. Expansionist Russia may, in your view, be history, but it is a bitter history that her neighbors remember all too well.

[Primorsky]

Chinese military and nuclear forces are joke compared to Russia
Why Russia need Poland? It’s useless country!

[Jmouse007]

Russia also wants the Ukraine, Georgia, Romania and everything else the USSR once owned. Putin envisions himself as the new post-Soviet Czar abd he is and will continue to work to this end.