Update on the proposed U.S. Missile Defense System in Poland

The propaganda war is in full steam
While the U.S. Embassy in Poland are organising a nation-wide lecture tour to convince students and academics to support the controversial proposed U.S. Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Defense system, the U.S. military claim to have conducted a successful test recently.

The Missile Defence Agency reported Saturday that "Patriot systems could destroy incoming ballistic missiles in their final minute of flight."

Meanwhile a mobilisation of Anti-ABM forces is being planned for next March. Anti-militarist activists from a wide range of political backgrounds are expected to participate in a weekend at Redzikowo and Slupsk in Northern Poland. Redzikowo is the planned site for a base that would contain 10 missile interceptors. It is 4 kms from the city of Slupsk. More details will be posted in due course.

The agents of war
The former and current Polish administration have been licking U.S. administration ass by allowing the construction of a system to 'defend' then from an imaginary threat from Iran, despite the fact they run the risk of pissing off relations even further with Russia and the E.U. This is a symptom of a deep illness which exists in Polish politicians' minds - they, even more than the average teenager, love war games and war toys. By warming up to the ever-growing tentacles of the U.S. military octopus, the Polish government is souring relations with it's two traditional nemeses, Germany and Russia. The former is certainly not a threat to Poland (despite a colleague trying to assert recently that a new Hitler could put up in Germany any minute), while the latter will just continue to flex it's muscles once it deems it's national pride bloodied by daring military adventures on it's doorstep, i.e. U.S. missiles in Poland, NATO expansion, etc.

One burning question is whether the Russian proposal of a joint U.S.-Russian system in Azerbaijan will be accepted. A team approach to the Iranian 'menace' may eventually transpire, and it certainly would not be out of Russia's reach to accept a U.S. offer of Russian generals being involved in monitoring or even operating some of the systems. Poland could be fucked from the back and front if it doesn't give up it's military aspirations. Yet, all the gamblers have their money on Poland and the Czech Republic to grovel to the U.S. and increasingly piss off Moscow and Brussels?

Public opposition
Will social movements in Poland and the Czech Republic (where the radar system is planned) grow in sufficient numbers, alongside mainstream political opposition from the Social Democrats (in Poland, though they led Poland into the Iraq and Afghan wars) and right-wing nuts (who are thankfully no longer in parliament)to achieve it's demand of a referendum on whether the shield should be allowed or not? The president, Lech Kaczynski, has already stated that National Defense should not be decided upon by such means. In other words, he realises that all the polls taken so far have concluded the Polish public are against such a development from occurring. Clever bastards at times, aren't they?

Political sources have informed me (and anyone who can do the maths) that it is highly unlikely a sufficient amount of MPs will be convinced to support the idea of a referendum. So the parliamentary system is useless - big surprise, huh!

Dirty deals
A recent pre-election debate between former Prime Minister, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, of the conservative nationalist PiS party and Donald Tusk from the pro-business, economically liberal PO party revealed that Tusk, who won the election last week, would renegotiate the defense shield pact with the U.S. gvt.
"You say we've gained a lot from our ties with the U.S., but you don't name a thing. Where are the visas? Where are the business deals?" Mr. Tusk asked Mr. Kaczynski.
Furthermore a leading Civic Platform lawmaker, Slawomir Nowak, was quoted by Associated Press as saying that "Poland must have a security guarantee tied to basing a missile shield on its soil. I'm talking about a missile defense system against short-range missiles, such as Patriot missiles."

Polish government's war fever
The increasing militarisation of Poland is a sad development from a country which has experienced such loss at the hands of destructive weaponry. One should very well fear that the lack of any organised peace, anti-war, anti-militarist, anti-imperialist (or whatever the fuck you want to call it) movement here will result in failing to have it's voice adequately heard enough amongst public and private media outlets to convince the public to mobilise en masse against more weapon systems being based on it's soil. Small scale but frequent nonviolent direct actions may create a forum whereby the public will have to have it's voice heard and debated with the governmental irrationalists.

From participation in Afghanistan and Iraq, growing arms deals abroad from State companies such as Bumar, the purchasing of 27 F-16's, and now the prioritisation of big war-business deals above true national security which would be based in peaceful, non-exploitative, non-violent, non-threatening relations with the citizens of other countries, ignoring their misleaders and fat corpocrat war-mongerers.

We'll march in hope, we'll agitate in expectancy, we'll resist till the war funds are redirected into areas that benefit human health and happiness rather than paralyse it with shock and awe death-seeking technology.