[You Dirty Rats]

Opposition from the British public over missile defense?

Ironic -- considering the British public were the first people in history to face a missile attack in 1944 from the V-2.

Ivan, why is the British Public in favor of being defenseless?

[MadIvan]

At least as logical a site for the shield would be Britain, where the Pentagon is already upgrading equipment at the early warning radar base of Fylingdales in North Yorkshire. But the intense domestic unpopularity of Tony Blair who is meeting President Bush in Washington tomorrow and hostility to the Iraq war have ruled that option out.

The British public hasn't even been asked. Blair is unpopular, but it has less to do with the Iraq War, than to do with the fact that he's overstayed his welcome, and the fact that the Home Office has been proven to be completely incompetent in recent weeks (they apparently forgot to deport foreign born criminals after they served their sentences - some re-offended).

"Blair is unpopular because of the Iraq War" is as tiresome a mantra about the British public as is "Bush is unpopular because of the Iraq War" is about the American public. Just because the media repeats either, doesn't necessarily mean it's true.

Regards, Ivan