Retrieved from Google's cache...

The country that should be most concerned about this, as a neighbour or both Poland and the Czech Republic and the largest EU member state is Germany. However, the Polish at least seem to be as about as wary of Germany as they are of Russia. So, what has Germany done?

Back in March this year we there was a lot of debate in Germany. Take this from March 12:

Fran:

Reuters: Germany's Schroeder slams U.S. missile shield plans

DRESDEN, Germany (Reuters) - U.S. plans to build a high-tech missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic are dangerous and absurd, former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said on Sunday.

"The missile defense system planned by the United States and which is to be installed in eastern Europe is politically extremely dangerous," Schroeder said in a speech in Dresden.

"It is viewed, rightly, in Russia, and not only there, as an attempt to establish an absurd encirclement policy, a policy which is everything but in the interest of Europe," he said.

On March 14, Merkel was talking tough...
Fran:

IHT: Merkel sharpens tone on U.S. missile shield

BERLIN: Chancellor Angela Merkel, sharpening her government's opposition to Poland's decision to accept part of a U.S. missile shield on its territory, said Tuesday that the issue should be submitted to NATO and not decided on a bilateral basis with Washington.

Merkel is to meet in Hannover on Thursday with President Vladimir Putin of Russia, whose aides have threatened to withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty if deployment so close to Russia's borders proceeds. On Friday, representing the European Union presidency, she will travel to Poland where she will discuss the plan with Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski.

"We, and I, will say that in Poland we would prefer a solution within NATO and also an open discussion with Russia," she told ZDF public television.

Nary a week later...
Fran:

German Concern Over Missile Shield Plans: Merkel Urges US to Consult Allies - International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is urging the US government to engage in a broader discussion about the missile defense shield it plans to erect in Poland and the Czech Republic to protect it from enemy missiles.

"We should always make sure that we discuss everything in a spirit of trust to avoid rifts," Merkel said in a speech to a conference on trans-Atlantic economic cooperation in Berlin. "No one can master the new challenges on their own." She said that applied to the European Union as well as the United States. The German chancellor was in Poland on Friday and Saturday to press its leaders to back a broader discussion on the missile shield within NATO.

Merkel's remarks follow strong comments from German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier who said it was important not to let the US project spark a new arms race in Europe nearly two decades after the end of the Cold War.

Was Germany coming to its senses? While the Social Democrats made noises about how dangerous this was, Merkel went to the US to make amends and say that she remained the best of pals with Condi Rice. So much for tough talk.

SPIEGEL alert 'Europe Doesn't Need New Missiles' (The World From Berlin, March 20 2007)

Plans by the United States to build a missile defense shield in Eastern Europe has led to sharp criticism from some quarters in Germany. While the chairman of the Social Democrats says Europe doesn't need new missiles, Chancellor Angela Merkel and her foreign minister would like to see NATO get more involved.

The German foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, visited his US counterpart Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Monday and sought to play down differences between Berlin and Washington on the issue of a US plan to build a missile defense system in Europe.

He described the US need to protect itself as "legitimate" and said that Germany respected this. "It is not a disruption of American-German relations, none whatsoever," he said after meeting with Rice.

(seen here on ET on March 21, 2007)
More NATO involvement? Okay, what does that mean? Well, after NATO's Jan de hoop scheffer said that yet another missile shield would be needed to protect South-East Europe, Solana pitched in to plead for poodlehood.
afew:

EUobserver.com | Solana calls for EU-level debate on missile shield

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU states should hold a joint debate on US plans to install a missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic, the EU's top man on foreign policy, Javier Solana, told MEPs in Brussels on Thursday (29 March), in a lively meeting that opened the question of EU treaty limitations on national sovereignty in defence.

By this time, the Germans government was fully on board! Apparently North Korea has missiles than can hit Europe (clearly with Russian permission).
Fran:

German Defense Minister in Favor of US Missile Shield in Europe | Germany | Deutsche Welle | 12.04.2007

German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung on Thursday expressed support for the US plan to build a missile shield in central Europe.

The latest developments with Iran's nuclear program reinforce the case for deploying a missile shield to protect Europe from attacks, Jung told Reuters in an interview Thursday.

The United States wants to build a radar station in the Czech Republic and a missile battery in Poland as a shield against possible nuclear attacks from what it calls "rogue states," namely Iran and North Korea.

And then the long awaited NATO meeting happened...
Fran:

EU states raise no objection to US missile plan at NATO forum - EUobserver.com

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - US plans to build a shield against intercontinental missiles in Poland and the Czech Republic received tacit approval from the 26 NATO member countries at a meeting on Thursday (19 April), despite opposition to the plan inside the EU and from Russia.

"There were no critical comments on the US system," NATO spokesman James Appathurai said after the first meeting of high-level NATO political representatives on the US plan, held at NATO headquarters just a few kilometres outside the EU capital, Brussels.

Shortly thereafter Putin said he would pull out of the CFE treaty. What would you have suggested that the Germany and the EU do differently?

Followed by this other comment

Oh, the danger has been appreciated in Europe, just not by "serious" people like Merkel, Solana, Jan de Joop Scheffer...

I think Germany should approach it from the other side, and try to buy off Poland and the Czech Republic. If they are looking for construction, let Germany build something in the same depressed areas, and so on.

Didn't I just show you that Germany's government pretended to be worried for a while but sought NATO cover as soon as they could? This reminds me of when the CIA Prison/Flight scandal broke in <gasp> November 2005. For a week Europe's governments made appropriate noises to satisfy the populace, and then Condi Rice was forced to come to Europe on a lightning trip, doring which Europe's leaders demanded, in the strongest possible terms, that Condi please help them deal with the European public. Ahem. It's been two years since anyone has done anything, despite the evidence.

As for buying off Poland and the Czech Republic... that seems hardly necessary
Fran:

US president starts Europe tour amid Czech protests - EUobserver.com

Two thousand anti-missile shield protestors picketed government buildings in Prague on Monday (4 June) night as US president George Bush landed in the Czech republic to start a week long European tour, with Mr Bush set to chide Russia over democratic standards in a major speech on Tuesday.

Czech demonstrators held up signs saying "Bush number one terrorist" in what has become a familiar sight on his European visits since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, with 1,500 Czech police - including counter-terrorist and sniper units - all-but shutting down central Prague in anticipation of larger protests today.

Opinion polls show two-thirds of Czechs do not want the US to build bits of a new missile shield in the country, amid fears of worsening relations with Russia and becoming a target for anti-US terrorist groups. The shield - to be operational by 2012 - will also see US missiles in Poland, despite similar fears in Polish society.

Assuming 1) Germany actually doesn't want the shield; and 2) the Czech government listens to its people; there should be no need for bribes. But what bribes can Germany offer that can outweigh giving the Czech President access to the US lecture circuit as a Climate Change expert? I mean, come on!

On Germany bribing the Poles, what did you smoke for breakfast today?

The only solution is to vote the serious peopleidiots out of office.
Fran:

Central European Socialists Sign Anti-Missile Shield Declaration | Europe | Deutsche Welle | 14.09.2007

The socialist leaders of six central European nations signed a declaration on Friday, Sept. 14, condemning US plans to base its missile defense shield on European soil.

In what will be a massive blow to the United States' plans to base its missile defense shield in Central Europe, left-wing leaders from the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia plus Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer and Germany's Social Democratic Party (SPD) chief Kurt Beck condemned the plan and issued a joint declaration stating their opposition in no uncertain terms.

"We are concerned about the decision to deploy the system and are at one with the large majority of our populations in rejecting it," read the declaration.

Sorry I lost the links to the original ET threads where these blockquotes were taken from - TribExt doesn't work on the google cache.

We have met the enemy, and he is us — Pogo