America needs more military bases

The United States’ plan to extend its missile defence system to Central Europe is not only angering its old Cold War adversary Russia, it’s also prompting a lively debate in the countries that would be on the sharp end of it. If all goes to plan, Poland would host an interceptor base – meant to shoot down incoming missiles from countries such as Iran - while the Czech Republic would host a radar station – meant to track those missiles as soon as they break cloud cover. The Czechs have said a cautious “yes” to the facility, which would be built in a range of hills about 70 kilometres from Prague in the Brdy military grounds.

It’s lunchtime at Rozmital’s Pansky Dum pub, and the workers are filling up on plates of goulash and pints of beer. Rozmital is a few minutes’ drive from the rolling Brdy hills, which America’s Missile Defence Agency has chosen as a potential site for a radar station.

At the height of the Cold War, the Brdy hills were bristling with Russian missiles. The Russians have long gone of course, but the area remains a restricted military zone. If the radar station becomes reality, it would be the first line of defence against an incoming missile attack. And it seems that’s not something the people of Rozmital are very happy about:

“When the Russians had their missiles here, we had to keep our mouths shut. Now the Americans want to put their radar here, but the difference is we’ve got the right to speak out. And I’ll tell you this – I’m against it.”

“It would be like the bad old days all over again. I think it would make this place a military target. And a terrorist target too.”

“I can’t see the point of it. Not only because it would be a military target, but also because it wouldn’t offer anything to the local people. It would need to offer something to the community – like jobs.”

Back in Prague, the campaign against the radar base is gathering momentum. The city library recently hosted a public meeting by a civic initiative called No To Bases, with speeches from some of Europe’s leading peace activists. Jan Tamas is the initiative’s spokesman:

“We believe this is a step in the wrong direction. We believe that if we want to live in peace, if we want to live in a secure Europe, and in a secure world, we need to begin disarming, not building new weapons, not building new military equipment, and not establishing new military bases.”

Across town at the heavily-guarded US embassy, Ambassador Richard Graber’s task is to explain the benefits of missile defence. His fundamental message is that a radar base poses no threat to either human health or the environment. Most of all, he says, it will not turn the Czech Republic into a prime military target:

“We’re talking about the safety and security of not only the Czech Republic but Europe and the United States. It’s a difficult world right now, we face threats and potential threats from countries such as Iran and North Korea, and the United States believes it’s very important to proceed with this facility.”

And that’s despite a great deal of sabre-rattling from Moscow since the Czechs and Poles said yes – in theory - to missile defence. The head of Russia’s missile command sent shivers down a many spine when he said his country would realign its rockets to target Poland and the Czech Republic if they went ahead. But that threat has been brushed aside by Czech officials. Alexandr Vondra is the country’s deputy prime minister:

“We have two options. Either to leave them alone, to build this on let's say the national level, but it would lead to decoupling and it would weaken NATO substantially. Or to do this with them, and I think this system - which we plan to develop together with the US - should be in future a certain backbone of the NATO system, once NATO has agreed unanimously to do this."

Local people are largely against the base, and are expected to say so in a series of non-binding referendums. Public opinion meanwhile is also turning against the idea. But even if the Czech public were in favour, the base is not a done deal - far from it. The plan must be approved by parliament, where the government has no majority. Czech officials may have given a cautious thumbs up to the American missile defence plan, but here in Prague it seems the battle for the radar base is just beginning.

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