Poland Should Stand Firm Against Plans for Missile Shield

Prime Minister Donald Tusk declared the American offer insufficient.

Negotiations over the U.S. missile shield proved to be unsuccessful. But, it’s a good thing the Prime Minister didn’t budge, because the Americans don’t have as many alternatives as they suggest. Time and location are to our advantage.

It’s the U.S. that needs the missile shield, not Poland. It will aid in protecting a majority of their territory, and possibly their bases in Western Europe. America has already built one missile shield on its western coast, which would intercept any missiles fired from North Korea or China. They lack the same kind of protection from an Iranian or Syrian attack. Without a properly located shield, the protective structure is not complete and doesn’t protect the whole of the U.S. from the missile attacks of rogue states.

Hence, Poland is a good location for the missile shield. If enemies fired a missile on our territory, it would not reach the U.S., and would be diverted away from Western Europe and the American bases located there. Of course, the U.S. could put the missile shield in Great Britain, who looked favorably upon the idea. There it would protect the U.S., as well as possibly the Albion base, but not U.S. bases in German Ramstein or Italian Aviano.

In this situation, Washington doesn’t have any alternative location for the missile shield in our part of Europe besides Poland. Recently, there was a vote to offer it to Lithuania. Now, we can suppose that this was more of a scare tactic used against us rather than a realistic alternative. In this incident, paradoxically, Russia aided the Polish Republic. If Moscow disagreed with the placing of the missile shield in Poland, then they were definitely going to protest its being placed in Lithuania, even closer to the Russian border. It’s guaranteed that Washington is taking into account the voice of the Kremlin and doesn’t want to cause too much irritation. In spite of this, it is possible that Washington can change its mind, stop regarding Moscow, and put the shield in Lithuania anyway. Even if this happened, the Americans would have to start from the beginning and lobby with the Lithuanian powers and any opposition. This would be time consuming.

Unfortunately, time is not something America has, particularly because of the upcoming presidential elections. The present administration wants to build the missile shield in Europe. This line of thinking will be supported by McCain, but not by Obama. If the Democrat is the victor, the whole project may become frozen or discarded. So, Americans are in more of a hurry to sign an agreement than ever before.

Given all these circumstances, it’s better for Poland to stand firm.