Mr. Topolanek's coalition government does not have enough seats to assure support for the plans and may need opposition votes. Legislators from the Green Party -- the government's junior coalition partner -- have indicated they may block the proposals and opposition parties have demanded a national referendum. About two-thirds of Czechs oppose the radar deployment, according to polls. "Ratification will be difficult," said Jiri Schneider, program director at the Prague Security Studies Institute. "The missile defense plan has sparked a national debate about how exposed we want to be on the international stage." Czech political analysts said that, for the older generation, the missile defense plans had tapped into a deep and abiding suspicion of security alliances that stretched back across the past century. In 1938, on the eve of World War II, Czechoslovakia was carved up by the Nazis, with Western acquiescence, despite having a security agreement with France . In 1968, the country was invaded by troops from the Soviet Union. For the younger generation, opposition to the missile plan has become a way to express discontent with American policies, including the war in Iraq. Jan Tamas, 32, an information technology consultant in Prague who went on a 21-day hunger strike to oppose the plans, said he was motivated to do so by a mistrust of the Bush administration, fears of an arms race and opposition to having foreign troops on Czech soil. "The U.S. says we need missile defense to protect us from Iran," Tamas said. "But they made the same claims in 2003 about Iraq and weapons of mass destruction, and they were wrong." But Jiri Dolezal, 43, a commentator for the Czech weekly magazine Reflex, who has held a hunger strike in favor of the missile plans, said installing a radar base in his country would buttress national security and was an important expression of assertiveness after decades of Czech passivity under communist occupation. He called opponents of the plans a fringe of leftist radicals who were succumbing "to traditional Czech cowardice."
"Ratification will be difficult," said Jiri Schneider, program director at the Prague Security Studies Institute. "The missile defense plan has sparked a national debate about how exposed we want to be on the international stage."
Czech political analysts said that, for the older generation, the missile defense plans had tapped into a deep and abiding suspicion of security alliances that stretched back across the past century.
In 1938, on the eve of World War II, Czechoslovakia was carved up by the Nazis, with Western acquiescence, despite having a security agreement with France . In 1968, the country was invaded by troops from the Soviet Union. For the younger generation, opposition to the missile plan has become a way to express discontent with American policies, including the war in Iraq.
Jan Tamas, 32, an information technology consultant in Prague who went on a 21-day hunger strike to oppose the plans, said he was motivated to do so by a mistrust of the Bush administration, fears of an arms race and opposition to having foreign troops on Czech soil.
"The U.S. says we need missile defense to protect us from Iran," Tamas said. "But they made the same claims in 2003 about Iraq and weapons of mass destruction, and they were wrong."
But Jiri Dolezal, 43, a commentator for the Czech weekly magazine Reflex, who has held a hunger strike in favor of the missile plans, said installing a radar base in his country would buttress national security and was an important expression of assertiveness after decades of Czech passivity under communist occupation.
He called opponents of the plans a fringe of leftist radicals who were succumbing "to traditional Czech cowardice."
Mr. Dolezal has a funny idea of what constitutes passivity and cowardice.
But Jiri Dolezal, ....... said installing a radar base in his country would buttress national security and was an important expression of assertiveness after decades of Czech passivity under communist occupation
So being submissive to the global hegemony of the US is okay and not a demonstration of the new passivity ? keep to the Fen Causeway
