Czechs Divided Over Missile Defense Radar

The U.S. plan to deploy a missile defense radar in the Czech Republic has become a divisive topic in the European nation, where the government strongly supports the proposal in the face of a less supportive citizenry, the New York Times reported today (see GSN, Sept. 28).

“I have not experienced a topic that would divide the Czech population as much as this radar,” said lawmaker Josef Rihak, coordinator of the League of Mayors Against the Radar.  “I think my son is the biggest ally of the radar in the entire Czech Republic.”

Rihak’s 18-year-old son, also named Josef, said “I want American people in our country.”

While there is historically strong support for the United States in the Czech Republic, a recent poll found that 49 percent of Czech citizens opposed the radar while only 22 percent backed the installation.

Czechs fear that their nation could become a target by housing the radar base.  Russia’s missile chief has threatened to aim weapons at Eastern European nations participating in the missile defense program, the Times reported.

“I’ve never been a coward, but that feeling when the Russians tell you they’ll be aiming their missiles at you, of course we are afraid of that,” said Rihak, who serves in Parliament and is mayor of Pribram.

Doubts about U.S. credibility, particularly in the wake of incorrect intelligence on prewar Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, are another barrier to those promoting the radar base.

The government is conducting a widespread public relations campaign and organizing a series of town hall meetings on the base.  Residents of some towns have yelled or thrown eggs at the government speakers.

The Bush administration made a strategic error by planning bilateral agreements with the Czech Republic and Poland, which would house 10 missile interceptors, rather than working with NATO, said Ronald Asmus, director of the Trans-Atlantic Center of the German Marshall Fund in Brussels.  It also assumed its initiative would receive automatic support in the two U.S. allies, rather than offering details of the technology and explaining why it was needed.

“I remember sitting in my office, having just left the Pentagon, and being startled when I saw the announcement and saying to myself, ‘They didn’t do a rollout,’” said James Townsend Jr., former European relations chief at the Defense Department.

Czech lawmakers are expected to consider the radar plan no earlier than January.  The government is seeking support from 102 of 200 members of the lower chamber of Parliament, but that backing remains in question (Nicholas Kulish, New York Times, Oct. 1).

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