US missile defense plan stirs division in Europe
Czech radar site angers Russia
TROKAVEC, Czech Republic -- The push and pull of international tensions seem far removed from this forest village 45 miles southwest of Prague. Fewer than 100 people live here in masonry houses topped with orange tiles.
"At the moment," said Mayor Jan Neoral, a retired electrician, "we have no enemies."
But the United States, with the approval of the Czech government, plans to build a huge radar station a mile from the village -- part of a proposed ballistic missile defense system designed to shoot down nuclear missiles before they hit their targets.
The plan has reopened Cold War schisms in Europe. At a recent meeting in the Czech Republic, one man shouted that opponents of the plan were "Bolsheviks."
It also has angered Russia.
On Tuesday, Russia tested a new intercontinental ballistic missile designed to pierce the US shield. Lest the point be lost, President Vladimir Putin of Russia said US plans to base parts of its defense system in the Czech Republic and Poland would turn Europe into a "powder keg."
President Bush will visit Prague tomorrow and Tuesday to try to seal the deal with the Czech government. But the issue threatens to cast a shadow on his visit Wednesday through Friday for the summit of the Group of Eight leading industrial nations in Germany.
And it has scared the wits out of the people of Trokavec. They fear the radar station will damage their health and make their village subject to attack.
"So we become a target," Neoral said. "Why?"
In a referendum in March, residents voted, 71 to 1, to direct the mayor to oppose the project.
"I am afraid of war," said Danuse Cermakova, 69. "We want peace, peace, peace."
The Ballistic Missile Defense System, as it is formally known, is the successor to the Strategic Defense Initiative, commonly called Star Wars, announced by President Reagan more than two decades ago. The idea is to protect the United States and some allies from nuclear attack. Radar stations, like the one proposed for the Czech Republic, would track and identify missiles. That information would be communicated to launch sites, such as the one proposed for Poland, which would use interceptor missiles to knock the attacking missiles out of the sky.
The threat, the US government says, comes primarily from Iran and North Korea.
"Considerable danger resides in the development of chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons that can be paired with ballistic missiles for use against the United States, our troops abroad, our allies, and our friends," the Missile Defense Agency says in its literature.
The program is the largest item in the defense budget, costing $10 billion a year, said Joseph Cirincione, a specialist on nuclear weapons at the Center for American Progress, a progressive Washington-based policy institute.
Some European officials worry it would make the continent more of a target and that deteriorating relations with Russia would harm Europe.
If the danger to Europe as a whole is increasing, these officials argue, then the decision on basing elements of the system on the continent should be made by Europe as a whole -- most likely through NATO -- rather than in bilateral agreements.
"It will be an issue at the G-8," said John Kirton, a University of Toronto specialist on the summit meetings. "I don't think it'll be a dominant issue."
But, he added, the issue will further alienate Russia, and could divide the G-8. Most European leaders, including allies in the fight in Afghanistan, are saying little. But if pushed, Kirton predicted, they will say, "This is not the time; this is not the place."
Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, while thought to be supportive of the US policy, has said there should be a debate on the shield within NATO and that the European Union, too, should "present a common front" on it.
But Kurt Beck, the leader of Germany's Social Democratic Party, which is part of Merkel's governing coalition, has urged the United States to reconsider its plan to deploy the shield in Europe -- and maybe scrap it altogether.
The new French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, has also called for a common EU position.
In the Czech Republic, some politicians think that the issue could destabilize the government. While the government supports the plan, polls have indicated that 68 percent of voters oppose it.
"I am personally convinced that it is a big problem in the Czech Republic," said Lubomir Zaoralek, vice president of the Czech Parliament's chamber of deputies. He opposes the base in part because the proposal is ruining relations between Russia and the European Union, he said. 