Posted on 01/13/2009 2:17:40 PM PST by lizol
Poland hopes US will not back out of missile shield plans
13th January 2009
FM Sikorski expresses faith that Obama will press ahead with plans to install elements of a missile shield system in Poland
A few days before President-elect Barack Obama is sworn into office, Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski expressed hope that Obama does not back out of plans to install elements of a missile shield system on Polish soil.
“I hope the new administration of President-elect Barack Obama, led by strategic security considerations, will continue the installation of missile defenses," Reuters reported Sikorski as saying at a ceremony to commemorate 90 years of diplomatic ties between Poland and the US. The conference was also attended by the US ambassador to Poland, Victor Ashe.
After Poland regained independence in 1918, the US was the first country among the great powers to recognize the Polish state.
Poland and the US signed a contract to install the missile shield in August 2008.
Good luck with that, buddy...
These are the folks who stonewalled us for the better part of a year? Too late, guys - you had your chance.
I don’t remember Poland stonewalling on this. The Dems and others (including Putin) raised a fuss, but I think Poland was constantly asking for the missiles. I know Poland was more vocal after Russia invaded Georgia, but I don’t think Poland ever tried to slow the process...did I miss something?
This joke that someone elected doesn’t have the balls that George W Bush has had and still has.
Stey with it, Poland, and make some noise about any attempt to shut down the missile shield.
Gee whiz!
No Hope for you. All you get is Change, suckers. < /shaking head at the next four or eight years>
I’ve been following this issue for a while. A Washington Times columnist summarized it this way:
Poland, whom we have lately undertaken to defend from a revanchist Russia, was shaking down Uncle Sam for hundreds of millions in military aid before it would agree to let us put a missile defense on Polish soil, a missile defense designed to protect Poland as well as the U.S.
“The United States is headed for tough negotiations with Poland over a planned missile defense shield,” said the story, “with Warsaw now demanding that Washington pour hundreds of millions of dollars into improving its defense capabilities.”
The tough Polish attitude was attributed to new Prime Minister Donald Tusk who “raised serious questions about the cost and benefits from the missile system for his country.”
Not so long ago, a U.S. president would have told Tusk that we Americans do not cotton to extortion. If Warsaw will not welcome a U.S. missile defense on its soil, fine. Warsaw can defend itself. Must we now pay Europe for the privilege of defending Europe?
What made Poland’s demand especially galling was that the United States had already provided Warsaw with $750 million in military aid. Yet in early March, Tusk was in the Oval Office, seated beside President Bush, radiating victory. “We came to the conclusion,” Tusk purred, “that the missile defense system and the modernization of the Polish forces ... come in one package.”
Obama is going to disappoint across the board.
Sorry Poland, you will be disappointed.
Sorry America, you will be disappointed... but you deserve it as you voted for the nitwit en-masse.
Sorry Israel, your fellow Jewish limousine liberals from New York to San Francisco voted for this fool too...
Didn’t the bible say something about a great deceiver...
...nahhh... couldn’t be...
Thanks. Do you have the link to the report, I would be interested in reading it.
It looks like the NMD system will NOT be erected, based on statements by Obama and Clinton wanting to buddy with Russia and China.
Note the date on the news article. Unfortunately, there’s this propaganda that State and Defense Department empire-builders (in terms of Federal personnel and budget allocations) like to foist on us about happy, shining allies who want nothing but to be equal contributors to an alliance with America. In reality, we’re the primary provider of military welfare to a passel of ungrateful, and indeed indifferent, military dependents.
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