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  1. #1
    Senior Member Reciprocity's Avatar
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    Russia Threatens Military Response to Poland

    Russia Threatens Military Response if U.S., Poland Follow Through With Missile Defense Deal
    Wednesday, August 20, 2008

    http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,407262,00.html



    MOSCOW — The United States and Poland signed a deal Wednesday to place a U.S. missile defense base just 115 miles from Russia — a move followed swiftly by a new warning from Moscow of a possible military response.

    For many Poles — whose country has been a staunch U.S. ally in Iraq and Afghanistan — the accord represented what they believed would be a guarantee of safety for themselves in the face of a newly assertive Russia.

    Negotiators sealed the deal last week against a backdrop of Russian military action in Georgia, a former Soviet republic turned U.S. ally, that has worried former Soviet satellites across eastern Europe. It prompted Moscow's sharpest rhetoric yet over the system, which it contends is aimed at Russia despite Washington's insistence the site is purely defensive.

    After Wednesday's signing, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice dismissed any suggestion the 10 missile defense interceptors — which Washington says are intended to defend Europe and the U.S. from the possible threat of long-distance missiles from Iran — represent a threat to Russia.

    "Missile defense, of course, is aimed at no one," Rice said. "It is in our defense that we do this."

    RelatedStories
    Rice Signs Missile Defense Deal With Poland She denounced an earlier threat from a Russian general to target NATO member Poland, possibly even with nuclear weapons, for accepting the facility.

    Such comments "border on the bizarre, frankly," Rice told reporters in Warsaw. "The Russians are losing their credibility," she said, adding that Moscow would pay a price for its actions in Georgia, though she did not specify how.

    "It's also the case that when you threaten Poland, you perhaps forget that it is not 1988," Rice said. "It's 2008 and the United States has a ... firm treaty guarantee to defend Poland's territory as if it was the territory of the United States. So it's probably not wise to throw these threats around."

    Hours after the signing, Russia's Foreign Ministry warned that Moscow's response would go beyond diplomacy. The system to be based in Poland lacks "any target other than Russian intercontinental ballistic missiles," it said in a statement, contending the U.S. system "will be broadened and modernized."

    "In this case Russia will be forced to react, and not only through diplomatic" channels, it said without elaborating.

    The Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation in Washington criticized the deal, saying the U.S. missile interceptors are technologically unproven and will only confirm Russian suspicions the system is directed against Moscow and not at Iran.

    The deal follows an earlier agreement to place the second component of the missile defense shield — a radar tracking system — in the neighboring Czech Republic, another formerly communist country now in NATO.

    Norway: Russia Plans to Cut Military Ties With NATO

    "We have achieved our main goals, which means that our country and the United States will be more secure," Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told Rice after the signing.

    Many Poles agreed. "After what happened in Georgia, I believe that this is good protection for us," said Kazimierz Dziuba, 49, a hospital worker in Warsaw.

    The Georgian conflict "made the Americans agree to this deal sooner because the Russians are getting too bossy," Dziuba said.

    Not all Poles were happy, however.

    Alina Kesek, an 82-year-old retired office clerk who lived through World War II, when Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union divided Poland between them, and then experienced four decades of Moscow-dominated communist rule, said the Patriot missiles were a "kind of provocation" toward Russia.

    "This means a threat from the Russian side," said Kesek. "I am not very pleased with this deal."

    Some residents in the northern Polish town of Redzikowo, where the missile defense facility will be located, fear it may expose them to retaliatory attacks or other dangers.

    Along with the main deal, the two nations signed a so-called "declaration on strategic cooperation," which is to deepen their military and political partnership.

    It includes a mutual commitment to come to each other's assistance immediately if one is under attack — enhancing existing obligations both have as NATO members.

    The declaration also was accompanied by a promise from the U.S. to help modernize Poland's armed forces and to place a battery of Patriot missiles there by 2012.

    Rice said the deal "will help both the alliance and Poland and the United States respond to the coming threats."

    Poland and the United States spent a year and a half in formal talks, which snagged in the final phase on Poland's demands for the Patriot missiles and other points.

    However, the deepening U.S.-Polish friendship dominated Wednesday's proceedings.

    "In troubled times the most important thing is to have friends," Rice said. "But it is more important to have friends who share your values and your aspirations and your dreams. And Poland and the United States are those kind of friends."

    Approval for the missile defense sites is still needed from the Czech and Polish parliaments. No date has been set for lawmakers in Warsaw to vote, but the deal enjoys the support of the largest opposition party as well as of the government.
    “In questions of power…let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.” –Thomas Jefferson

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    Alina Kesek, an 82-year-old retired office clerk who lived through World War II, when Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union divided Poland between them, and then experienced four decades of Moscow-dominated communist rule, said the Patriot missiles were a "kind of provocation" toward Russia.
    Let's just call this more bear-baiting by this wacko administration.
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    This whole world is going to hell in a hand basket!
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    ELE
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    This could be the start of WW III....scary stuff!

    WW III!
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    Senior Member tencz57's Avatar
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    Re: This could be the start of WW III....scary stuff!

    Quote Originally Posted by ELE
    WW III!
    Very Scary stuff going on right now . I do not believe we have the leadership to engage in WWIII , politicial or militarily . We Damn sure don't have the money plus the beat down of the American spirit , No Way can we engage in this insanity
    Nam vet 1967/1970 Skull & Bones can KMA .Bless our Brothers that gave their all ..It also gives me the right to Vote for Chuck Baldwin 2008 POTUS . NOW or never*
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    Senior Member BearFlagRepublic's Avatar
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    I heard Michael Savage today quote Rice as to saying that an incursion onto Polish soil is considered the same as a incursion of US soil. That my friends, is insanity. Of course, Rice is not wrong. That is, in effect, what NATO signatories guarantee each other. What is insane, is that Poland is part of NATO in a post Cold War world.

    The US and European nations have bungled into several stupid wars together. They are usually based on these types of war guarantees.

    Anyone want to guess when the last time Poland was given a war guarantee?
    Serve Bush with his letter of resignation.

    See you at the signing!!

  7. #7
    Senior Member tencz57's Avatar
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    Anyone want to guess when the last time Poland was given a war guarantee?
    Pre-WWII .
    Nam vet 1967/1970 Skull & Bones can KMA .Bless our Brothers that gave their all ..It also gives me the right to Vote for Chuck Baldwin 2008 POTUS . NOW or never*
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