The recent midterm elections in the United States are expected to further delay plans to expand the U.S. missile defense shield into Central Europe. Czech politicians have been in discussions with the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) for more than two years over plans to build an anti-missile defense base in the country, and Pentagon officials spent this past summer surveying potential sites here and in Poland. The DOD was to decide which country it would ask to host the base by the end of the summer.Today, however, Czech officials are still waiting for that decision. And after the Democrats swept the Nov. 8 U.S. elections, which led to the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, they'll likely be waiting a while longer, experts say. "The Pentagon would've been thinking about this [election] for the last few months. I imagine it's been more of a priority than making missile defense decisions," said Daniel Keohane, a senior research fellow at the London-based Center for European Reform.
In October, Gen. Marvin McNamara, deputy director of the Missile Defense Agency (MDA), a branch of the DOD, told reporters in Washington, D.C., that a decision would come at the end of the year. However, with that deadline rapidly approaching, defense officials remain mum on the base's status. "There's been no development over the past weeks concerning the possibility of a U.S. anti-missile base here," said Zuzana Opletalová, spokeswoman for the Foreign Affairs Ministry. "The only information we have is that a decision is to be made sometime this winter."
| I like the Poles and Czechs well enough, but if the EU doesn't pay 100% of the cost I don't really see the point of installing this on their continent. Let them figure out how they'll defend themselves against an Iranian IRBM. |