Critics call Poland Patriot missile plan a symbolic gesture

Critics call Poland Patriot missile plan a symbolic gesture
By Nancy Montgomery, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Thursday, November 26, 2009

HEIDELBERG, Germany — Soldiers from U.S. Army Europe’s Patriot missile battalion could be deploying to Poland as soon as the spring for a six-month rotation as part of the Obama administration’s new missile defense plan in Eastern Europe.

But critics say the Patriot deployment — the first to put U.S. troops in Poland — is nothing more than a symbolic, diplomatic gesture.

U.S. Army Europe officials were in Warsaw working on the agreement shortly before Vice President Joe Biden traveled to Poland last month in the wake of the White House decision to change the Bush administration’s missile defense plan. Biden reassured Polish leaders that the new plan — although scrapping putting long-range missile interceptors in Poland — did not leave the country out of the loop. And he announced that a U.S. Patriot missile battery of about 100 soldiers would soon arrive on Polish soil.

U.S. Army Europe declined to confirm any upcoming Patriot deployment.

"There are no Patriots in Poland yet," said USAREUR spokesman Col. Bryan Hilferty. "It’s mostly pre-decisional at this point."


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