BERLIN (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said here on Wednesday that a planned missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic was designed to counter a threat from Iran.

"We have a growing Iranian missile threat and we need to be able to deal with that," Rice told reporters ahead of a meeting in the German capital of the Quartet for Middle East peace.

"Everybody understands that with a growing Iranian missile threat which is quite pronounced there need to be ways to deal with that problem.

"These missile systems are for purposes having to do with post 9/11 threats," Rice said.

more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070221/pl_afp/polandczechusrussia_070221145648

It's either that, or burning human flesh -- it's getting hard to tell the difference nowadays...

flashback from 2005:

Poland Links Bid For U.S. Aid to Presence in Iraq
Money Sought to Modernize Forces

By Bradley Graham
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, December 10, 2005; Page A13

Poland has asked for additional U.S. military assistance to modernize its own forces as it considers whether to extend the presence of Polish troops in Iraq next year, according to Polish and U.S. officials.

Although Warsaw has stopped short of conditioning its Iraq decision on the request for aid, it has made it clear that the two are linked, saying the $600 million it has spent on the Iraq operation has siphoned funds from plans to upgrade its own military.

more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/09/AR2005120901816.html

...about Iran.

This is an effort to show that it's not just America that is
concerned about Iran. The world is terrified too.

...therefore, so should all of you.

:eyes:

I really think they must find this explanation silly bordering on the insane.

Attack is imminent says Rice. More Fox News headlines at the top of the hour.

Rice will say anything, no matter how absurd.

BERLIN - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Wednesday called a Russian general's warning that Poland and the Czech Republic risk being targeted if they host U.S. missile defense bases "extremely unfortunate."

~snip~

"I think that was an extremely unfortunate comment," Rice said at a news conference in Berlin, adding that the system did not threaten Moscow's forces "and we have had the opportunity to explain that to Russia."

She said the U.S. has made clear to Russia that the system would be to counter any missile threat from Iran. The system is too small to stop Russia's large nuclear arsenal, she said.

"Anyone who knows anything about this knows that there is no way that 10 interceptors ... are a threat to Russia or that they are somehow going to diminish Russia's deterrent of thousands of warheads," Rice said.

"I think everyone understands that with a growing Iranian missile threat, which is quite pronounced, that there need to be ways to deal with that problem," she added.

more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070221/ap_on_re_eu/europe_missile_defense

Iran is more likely to fire them at a target in the Middle East than somewhere in mainland Europe. It doesn't seem to make sense.

and to think she is an "expert" on Russian affairs. :argh:

The Czech and Polish governments are whores of Bush! I am sure their leaders are being compensated for prostrating themselves in front of the American tyrant.

Iran is not the target here, Russia is!

I suppose that Russia could respond by deploying their own anti-ballistic missile to places close to our own shores, such as Cuba and Venezuela, and I for one won't blame them for it.

V. Putin and the Geopolitics of the New Cold War:
Or, what happens when Cowboys don't shoot straight like they used to...

F. William Engdahl
www.engdahl.oilgeopolitics.net/
Feb 19, 2007

The frank words of Russia's President Vladimir Putin to the assembled participants of the annual Munich Wehrkunde security conference have unleashed a storm of self-righteous protest from Western media and politicians. A visitor from another planet might have the impression that the Russian President had abruptly decided to launch a provocative confrontation policy with the West reminiscent of the 1943-1991 Cold War.

However, the details of the developments in NATO and the United States military policies since 1991 are anything but 'déjà vu all over again', to paraphrase the legendary New York Yankees catcher, Yogi Berra.

This time round we are already deep in a New Cold War whose stakes are literally the future of life on this planet. The debacle in Iraq, or the prospect of a US tactical nuclear pre-emptive strike against Iran are ghastly enough. In comparison to what is at play in the US global military buildup against its most formidable remaining global rival, Russia, they loom relatively small. The US military policies since the end of the Soviet Union and emergence of the Republic of Russia in 1991 are in need of close examination in this context. Only then do Putin's frank remarks on February 10 at the Munich Conference on Security make sense.

<snip>

Were the United States able to effectively shield itself from a potential Russian response to a US nuclear First Strike, the US would be able simply to dictate to the entire world on its terms, not only to Russia. That would be what military people term Nuclear Primacy. That is the real meaning of Putin's unusual speech. He isn't paranoid. He's being starkly realistic.
http://www.321gold.com/editorials/engdahl/engdahl021907.html