Word: czechs
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Plenty of political concerns have been raised over President Barack Obama's decision to scrap plans to deploy a missile-intercept system in Poland and the Czech Republic. "It's better these days to be a U.S. adversary than its friend," lamented the Wall Street Journal in a Friday, Sept. 18, editorial, implying that the U.S. caved in to Russia in abandoning the missile system. But just because Russia had furiously opposed the missile shield on its doorstep doesn't necessarily mean building it would have been a good idea. The military rationale for Obama's move is hard...
...Among other advantages, the ships can sail freely in international waters to meet evolving threats without obtaining consent from host countries (the Czech parliament, for example, had yet to approve the deployment of the now canceled system). What's more, they can perform missions other than missile defense, and they are considerably cheaper. "This system gives us a much more significant and robust capability to adapt to the threat as it actually emerges," Marine General James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Thursday, Sept...
...most people in the Czech Republic agree with him. Repeated polls have found that more than 60% of the country opposes the construction of radar facilities within its borders. Many feared that the U.S. missile-defense system would destabilize security by provoking Russia, which has long been against the building of the shield, and making the Czech Republic a target for an Iranian first strike. "Seventy percent of people in the Czech Republic will certainly welcome [this decision],"said Social Democratic leader Jiri Paroubek, whose party had opposed the radar, citing recent polls. "I think it will raise the United...
...every Czech feels this way. Proponents of the radar - mostly conservative politicians from the former center-right government that recently lost power - are openly angry with the decision and are concerned that the U.S. has acquiesced to Russia's demands that the system be scrapped. Ex-Premier Mirek Topolanek, whose government fell in March, said the decision showed that the U.S. no longer cares about the security of central Europe. While in power, Topolanek had supported the system against public opinion, because he felt the presence of U.S. military technology was a physical manifestation of the determination that central Europe...
...Vidim, head of the lower house defense committee and a lawmaker for Topolanek's Civic Democrats, said the removal of the defense system was a blow to Czech interests. "The first feeling is a great disappointment and disgust over Mr. Obama's cowardice," Vidim said, according to the website of the daily Lidove Noviny. "He performs endless concessions, for example towards Russia. I consider it a betrayal of allies." (Read a Joe Klein blog post on the scrapping of antimissile defenses...