Administration's Missile Defense Angers European Lawmakers, U.S. Officials Back Concerns

October 5, 2007 11:23 a.m. EST

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - A Bush administration plan to base anti-missile systems in Poland and the Czech Republic has triggered debate and the ire of some in Congress, Europe, and, particularly, Russia, which warns that the move might ignite another arms race. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates are slated to meet with their Russian counterparts October 12 in Moscow to discuss missile defense and other security matters.

Aleksey Ostrovsky from the Duma International Affairs Committee stated, "The installation of a missile defence system in Europe will impact negatively on the trust built up by the Russian and U.S. Presidents. It will damage the relationship between the countries. It also goes against the interests of the European community, which opposes the plan."

Lawmakers in Poland and the Czech Republic are also against the idea, as is public opinion in both countries. "Arguments in favor of deploying [missile] systems in the center of Europe to protect NATO members from a hypothetic threat emanating from Iran and North Korea are implausible," according to a statement from opposition parties.

Lieutenant General Henry Obering, the head of the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency (MDA), writes in the October issue of Arms Control Today that the Iranian missile threat is evolving quickly and delays in extending U.S. missile defenses to Europe "could leave the United States and our allies in an intolerably vulnerable situation tomorrow."

According to MDA plans the deployment of the first of 10 interceptors as early as 2011.

However, California Democrat Ellen Tauscher, who chairs the strategic forces subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee, staunchly believes the current proposal fails to adequately protect all U.S. allies.

She urges the administration to work with all NATO members, not just Poland and the Czech Republic, to explore other options for defense. She does however believe in raising testing efforts of U.S. systems to ensure that they can work under realistic conditions. Tauscher further recommends engaging Russia to discuss its concerns and proposals, although she notes "Russia should not expect a veto over U.S. or alliance security."

Moscow however fears that the proposed defense is aimed at Russia instead of Iran as the Bush administration claims. Russian lawmakers said new bases would also weaken mutual trust affecting efforts against international terrorism and other security challenges.

Obering dismisses this assertion, writing that "U.S. interceptors in Europe cannot catch Russian ICBMs because of the engagement distances and greater speeds of the Russian missiles."

However, U.S. physicists, George Lewis and Theodore Postol, say that Russian concerns have some basis. In published reports they say that U.S. interceptors based in Poland would be fast enough to intercept some Russian missiles and point out that any initial U.S. capability could be enhanced or expanded over time.

Jack Mendelsohn, a former U.S. arms control negotiator says this is probably Russia's worst fears. He's not not convinced that [the initial deployment] will be the end of the story. Mendelsohn suggests giving Russian concerns and proposals a serious hearing and "rethinking the current Europe-based missile defense project," which he charges is motivated partially by the administration's intent to "entrench the program and help ensure its continuation after the present administration leaves office in 2009."