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>Any independent country would, when all of a sudden someone dumps the anti-ballistic treaty and then decides to build a defensive shield along your borders. L

by Arwill 13y ago

>Any independent country would, when all of a sudden someone dumps the anti-ballistic treaty and then decides to build a defensive shield along your borders. Look at this from Poland's side. Not building the defensive shield means that Russia has still the right to pressure the country with missiles. Russia wouldn't need to object the defense shield if they didn't want that. Pressuring your neighbors with weapons is still cold war tactics. In this case Russia was clearly the bad guy. Russia is also the bad guy when it manipulates the energy prices for Europe, but it seems that wasn't enough for them.

arethuza 13y ago
Would the missile defence system that was planned for Poland really have protected Poland from attack from Russia? They are pretty close so cruise missiles and/or aircraft would presumably be preferable to use rather than ballistic missiles.
- rdtsc 13y ago
  The opposite is true. Poland would have been wiped out as the first order of business if anything was about to start. I suspect them being a prime target might have given them some thought.
  - arethuza 13y ago
    The Russians apparently announced they would have deployed Iskander theatre missiles in the Kaliningrad Oblast to target any US missile defence base in Poland: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9K720_Iskander http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9K720_Iskander http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_missile_defense_complex_in_Poland http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_missile_defense_complex_in_P...
- akiselev 13y ago
  Remember when Russia invaded Georgia in the last decade? Yeah, nothing NATO can do or install in Poland would help them in that situation.
pessimizer 13y ago
Poland's side is not so important here. Nobody's blaming Poland for taking US missiles, they're blaming the US for putting them there. It's as if Russia decided they wanted to put missiles in Cuba.
- Arwill 13y ago
  Its not about blame. Its about the diplomatic message of the whole story. And the diplomatic message is that Russia can still pressure Poland, with weapons, if it deems necessary. So Poland better behaves accordingly. This show of power and bullying was typical for the cold war, and this story went down in that same manner. Nobody would fire missiles today there, but the possibility/capability is what matters, not the will. If you look at it his way, then the US's role in this is the least important.
  - pessimizer 13y ago
    If you look at it from Poland's point of view, of course that's true. What I'm saying is that they were US missiles targeting Russian ones, which was a re-escalation of the arms race that has the potential to kill us all, including the Polish. Poland's local concerns are valid based on the history between Poland and Russia, but small in the grand scheme of things.
znowi 13y ago
I'm sorry, but this is ridiculous. The last time Russia officially threatened anyone with a nuclear strike was in the 60s and it was the US :)
arjunnarayan 13y ago
> Look at this from Poland's side. Not building the defensive shield means that Russia has still the right to pressure the country with missiles. Russia wouldn't need to object the defense shield if they didn't want that. Pressuring your neighbors with weapons is still cold war tactics. In this case Russia was clearly the bad guy. Russia is also the bad guy when it manipulates the energy prices for Europe, but it seems that wasn't enough for them. Look at this from Cuba's side. Not deploying the missiles means that the US has still the right to pressure the country with its military might. The US wouldn't need to object the defense shield if they didn't want that. Pressuring your neighbors with weapons is still cold war tactics. In this case US was clearly the bad guy. US is also the bad guy when it manipulates the energy prices for the world, but it seems that wasn't enough for them.

by Arwill 13y ago

arethuza 13y ago

Would the missile defence system that was planned for Poland really have protected Poland from attack from Russia? They are pretty close so cruise missiles and/or aircraft would presumably be preferable to use rather than ballistic missiles.

rdtsc 13y ago
The opposite is true. Poland would have been wiped out as the first order of business if anything was about to start. I suspect them being a prime target might have given them some thought.
- arethuza 13y ago
  The Russians apparently announced they would have deployed Iskander theatre missiles in the Kaliningrad Oblast to target any US missile defence base in Poland: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9K720_Iskander http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9K720_Iskander http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_missile_defense_complex_in_Poland http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_missile_defense_complex_in_P...
akiselev 13y ago
Remember when Russia invaded Georgia in the last decade? Yeah, nothing NATO can do or install in Poland would help them in that situation.

pessimizer 13y ago

Poland's side is not so important here. Nobody's blaming Poland for taking US missiles, they're blaming the US for putting them there. It's as if Russia decided they wanted to put missiles in Cuba.

Arwill 13y ago
Its not about blame. Its about the diplomatic message of the whole story. And the diplomatic message is that Russia can still pressure Poland, with weapons, if it deems necessary. So Poland better behaves accordingly. This show of power and bullying was typical for the cold war, and this story went down in that same manner. Nobody would fire missiles today there, but the possibility/capability is what matters, not the will. If you look at it his way, then the US's role in this is the least important.
- pessimizer 13y ago
  If you look at it from Poland's point of view, of course that's true. What I'm saying is that they were US missiles targeting Russian ones, which was a re-escalation of the arms race that has the potential to kill us all, including the Polish. Poland's local concerns are valid based on the history between Poland and Russia, but small in the grand scheme of things.

znowi 13y ago

I'm sorry, but this is ridiculous. The last time Russia officially threatened anyone with a nuclear strike was in the 60s and it was the US :)

arjunnarayan 13y ago

> Look at this from Poland's side. Not building the defensive shield means that Russia has still the right to pressure the country with missiles. Russia wouldn't need to object the defense shield if they didn't want that. Pressuring your neighbors with weapons is still cold war tactics. In this case Russia was clearly the bad guy. Russia is also the bad guy when it manipulates the energy prices for Europe, but it seems that wasn't enough for them. Look at this from Cuba's side. Not deploying the missiles means that the US has still the right to pressure the country with its military might. The US wouldn't need to object the defense shield if they didn't want that. Pressuring your neighbors with weapons is still cold war tactics. In this case US was clearly the bad guy. US is also the bad guy when it manipulates the energy prices for the world, but it seems that wasn't enough for them.