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ensho Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Sep-05-08 11:27 AM
Original message
US radar plans frightening Czechs

http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=68467§ionid=351020606


The US is pushing through a plan to station a radar base in the Czech Republic despite public protests.

Washington has transferred a large sum of money to the Czech Republic to fund the construction of the radar base which is part of a missile defense shield system, the Czech media reported.

The report has raised concerns among the Czech people who fear that US ambitious plans could turn their country into a battlefield in a war between Washington and its rivals.

Jan Neoral, the mayor of a village just a few kilometers away from the potential radar site had earlier held a referendum on the issue; the results had a clear message: 99% of the residents were against the radar base.

-snip-

The US is planning to station a missile defense shield system in Poland and the Czech Republic, a move which has irked Russia. Moscow sees the plan as a threat to its national security.
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Poland and Czech. will be sorry they ever did business with snake cheney and the neo cons.
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GreenPartyVoter Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Sep-05-08 11:36 AM
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1. They don't even get a choice? I just love how the ** junta is reviving the cold war
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Igel Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Sep-05-08 07:17 PM
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4. They get a choice.
But not at the village level.

The referendum was in 3/07. Neoral (whose name infelicitously shares its orthography with that of an immunosuppressant drug) said, "The main reason is health, and the negative effect of radiation from the radar facility on the inhabitants of Trokavec and other villages. But there are also political reasons. Building this radar station will help to create a new arms race, new mutual suspicions and will violate agreements that existed when the Czech Republic joined NATO, in particular the agreement on short and medium range missiles. In other words, it's craziness, and we can't see a reason for it."

The last poll results I saw said that a majority of Czechs were against it, but since it's not a local issue, instead a national issue, it really depends on the legislature and government. Haven't followed Prague politics recently.

I'm always amused that "radar" and "missile" seem to be such nebulous concepts for people that they're confused.

One thing to remember about E. European society is that politics and age are statified in parallel. Older people tend to be more conservative, which in those societies usually means socialist or communist. It's what they knew, it's the system they lived under and worked in, and since they're at retirement or beyond it, it was the safety net they were counting on. Privatization and moving to a market-based economy was toughest on them. Villages are mostly older people, unless they're near a major city, in which case they're chata outposts for city-folk. (Replace "chata" with "dacha" when in Russia.) Troskovec isn't especially close to a major city. (No place in the Czech Republic is especially far from a major city by US standards, but local standards vary.)

Moreover, the "normalization" of Czech society after '68 was mostly an urban thing. The cities have been more liberal straight along, both more cutting edge and more oppressed. The countryside had collectives, but it wasn't like the collectivization in Russia or, heaven forbid, the Ukraine.

However, a lot of Czechs probably figure they're safe. There's a great reticence to think about '68-'89, it's too embarrassing, so they don't--and it's not often talked about out loud; they don't really even teach the period in schools very much, so the younger generation's missed out and consider it mostly irrelevant. Most signs of Russian domination have been eradicated--the memorials, first in Russian and then only secondarily in Czech, to the great Soviet (invariably Russian) army, with a Russian buried at the memorial; obligatory instruction in Russian, etc., etc., have been gone for 15 years or more. Russia's mostly looking at its old empire, not the specifically Soviet buffer states. And between them and Russia to the north is Poland (if you go from Kaliningrad), and to the east there's Slovakia and Ukraine, or Poland and Belorus. By the time Russia pays close attention to Cesko, there'd be a full European war in any event, and Cesko wouldn't be a focus of anybody's attention. When you have a pop. of 10 million, that's not an inconvenient attitude.

I figure they'll sign on but that's mostly a hunch. Pressure from Washington--pressure that could be ignored, to be honest--with pressure from Russia. Most of the decision makers may not like remembering 1968, but they'd have had their lives destroyed or crippled by the Russian tanks and aircraft in any event; watching Georgia was a reminder of how it was for that generation.
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leftchick Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Sep-05-08 12:01 PM
Response to Original message
2. indeed they will
especially since this trillion dollar fraud will in no way stop a Russian Nuke. Fucking idiots.
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cwydro Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Sep-05-08 12:18 PM
Response to Original message
3. It does seem as if the cold war is back,
with all its chilliness.
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