How will history look back at Poland and the US?

Today, August 20th, is a historic day for the world. Not necessarily for the right reason. The US and Poland have signed an controversial deal to position a missile defence system on Polish soil with a view to protect the West from rogue states such as Iran and North Korea.
The timing of this deal is highly unfortunate considering what is going on in Georgia at the moment, but Condoleezza Rice was undeterred when she went to Warsaw. The Americans, and the Polish, know very well what the Russian stance is with regards to this Missile Defence complex. Prime Minister Putin, back when he was President in 2007, warned that Russia would aim its nuclear missiles towards European cities, as this is a blatant penning in of Russia. The US has disregarded this as ‘saber rattling’ , saying that it will protect the West and much of Europe from “rogue elements” in the Middle East. The deal has yet to be ratified by the Polish parliament, yet despite Russian threats that the site could be a target for a nuclear attack; Ms Rice and Poland’s Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski signed the deal.
Looking at it from a British, no European, perspective you would first think ‘great!’ America has spent money on protecting European countries and itself, nothing could be better! However, what a stupid and ignorant error on behalf of the Americans!
In my opinion this is something that will cause the already damaged relations between the Russians and the West to fracture even more. The Russian admiral for the Baltic fleet has said that Russia is looking to re-arm it’s Baltic fleet with nuclear arms again, the Russian navy is heavily under-funded, yet because of this move it’s funding is probably going to rise to it’s Cold War level.
Poland as well has made a huge mistake, does it not realise that Europe relies on Russian co-operation against terrorism and we rely on Russian energy supplies! Russia has, and will, cut the energy supplies to certain countries in Europe, like it did to the Ukraine in 2006, to have its dirty way over us, we’re almost hostage to this bully. John Li from Hong Kong left a comment on the BBC website saying “For Poland this is sheer folly to become a pawn in the battle between the US and Russia” I totally agree with this comment, it couldn’t highlight what is causing the greatest problem in these relations any better!
Suddenly, Eastern European nations and former Russian satellite states are flocking to the West looking for guaranteed protection (haven’t they learnt there lesson from Georgia?!?) . With the Baltic states and many Eastern European ex-Soviet states such as Hungary and Bulgaria having already joined NATO, and with the Georgian and Ukraine bid to join within the next 5 years, the signing of this deal couldn’t of come at a worse time.
Sir Michael Jackson, former head of the British armed forces, said that the Russian people are extremely sentimental. Also a large number of Russians live in these ex-soviet states, and they believe these countries are still rightfully there’s due to the high number of ethnic-Russians in their populace. Also the Russian people are a extremely proud nation, everyone knows the Russians lost the Cold War, everyone knows the West made a laughing stock of Russia during the 90’s, everyone knows this deal is in someway, if not completely, directed against Russia. History shows, once surrendered a country that is beaten to the ground is going to re-emerge stronger and more threatening than before, why are we trying to tempt Russia into another Cold War? What does the West gain from this?
In this era of globalisation, surely we should be looking to combat risks that damage the world such as global terrorism and climate change, why can’t we go back to the relationship we had before the Litvinenko saga, where Western and Russian security services were co-operating against the common enemy…terrorism. Historic moments such as the Putin/Blair summit and the Bush/Putin summits both show that the West and Russia have, and can, co-operate, after all the Russian government offered a site in Azerbaijan as a radar sit for long range threat protection. Anyway, the BBC sources state that the closing speed of the interceptor and target will be so high that it would make a successful detonation of the missile more difficult than hitting a bullet with another bullet. Despite the $100bn the US has spent on this project, the Pentagon has not proved the system works.
In another twist to the tale, the Czech Republic signed an agreement with the US to place tracking radar stations there in July, and Hungary looks set on making a similar deal with the US. More anger projected from Moscow at this move, a solution and end to this frail and frankly extremely dangerous relationship is in dire need.

By Peter Self (Editor of TPN)