What Poland and the Czech Republic will gain by having radars/missiles on their soil, I can't understand.
There's an issue of visas - Poland couldn't get visa-free travel to USA even by sending a lot of troops to Iraq. It's a sensitive issue in both Czech Rep and Poland.
Second, a base always means income (a cynic would say prostitution as well, but hey, who would bother about that in the Czech Republic, sex tourism capital of Central Europe?), and extra income never hurts.
And third, it means that CR and Poland remain glued to the USA even if NATO falls apart (which just might happen: they say any military alliance that had a misfortune of including Hungary had met an untimely death in recent centuries) or the hell freezes over.
So, you see, a lot of advantages. And not too many losses: Russian rockets would fly to the USA over the Arctic, not Warsaw.
US Senate panel approves bill for visa-free travel for citizens from CEE (bne ) A US Senate panel on Thursday approved legislation that could lead to visa-free travel to the United States for citizens from Eastern European nations, Latvian News Agency reported. The bill endorsed by the Homeland Security Committee would allow U.S. President George W Bush to designate which countries to include in the visa waiver program based on their cooperation in the war on terrorism. The bill still must be approved by the full Senate, and a similar measure must pass in the lower House of Representatives before Bush can sign it into law.
A US Senate panel on Thursday approved legislation that could lead to visa-free travel to the United States for citizens from Eastern European nations, Latvian News Agency reported.
The bill endorsed by the Homeland Security Committee would allow U.S. President George W Bush to designate which countries to include in the visa waiver program based on their cooperation in the war on terrorism.
The bill still must be approved by the full Senate, and a similar measure must pass in the lower House of Representatives before Bush can sign it into law.
The magic the distorted mercator porjection plays on our perceptions...
I have a project to produce gnomonic projection maps cetered at various points to illustrate "the world as seen from ..." "It's the statue, man, The Statue."
This trajectory would make-or-break a number of arguments - I've read in Russian media both that a) Poland is actually the most convenient place for anti-missiles, as they'd be right under the ascending part of the trajectory, and b) that it's total BS, and the antimissiles should be placed in Turkey or Italy... how easy it is to be an expert when checking what you say isn't just a click away...
