Strong- arm boys of the Iron Curtain era aren't gone

It had long been accepted that Czechoslovakia really did not want to be a dominion of the USSR. After all, there were dissidents, revolts, uprisings (quashed) and leaders waiting to wrest control from the communists at the first opportunity. As we head towards the 20th anniversary (yes, 20 years already) of the tearing down of the Berlin Wall and the demise of the USSR, the new, little Czech Republic has a thriving arts community, firm democracy in place, and is writing its European political dance ticket full of names that would make any westerner proud.

Meanwhile, Poland lurches from one wanna-be dictator to an ineffectual puppet of the right wing. Lech Walesa, the socialist union leader who led the Solidarity Movement is hardly a liberal voice. In fact, he inflamed matters last week when he hawkishly announced that the U.S. plan not to base anti-missile systems in Poland was “denying Poland’s right as a military power.�

And the Polish generals were not far behind in their anger. Their argument is that if Poland is good enough to be part of NATO and send troops to Iraq and Afghanistan, then it is good enough to be a frontline country in the defense of Europe. For frontline country you could also read “primary target.�

However, what is also oozing its way from beneath the covers in Warsaw is that Poland was the primary “rendition� contractor for the last administration. Rendition means transport, no habeas corpus, no rights and loads of torture by personnel unknown. Well, unknown until some of the generals have used the argument of how good they have been to America by torturing suspects secretly on our behalf.

The fact is, Poland saw our “missile defense shield� (a shield is not a defensive weapon, as history proves, it is a military advantage, therefore a weapon, plain and simple) as their one-upmanship over Germany and France. These missiles, or anti-missiles, can be fired from anywhere in Europe.

The closer to the launch place, the more efficacious (apparently), which makes the argument they were to offset Iran a little suspect and does, I am afraid, bolster Putin’s assertion that they were to destabilize the arms race with Russia. By now most experts agree, they were sort of a twofer ...  they could offset Iran’s missile threat and offset Russia’s silos, some of which are still in the Ukraine and Belarus.

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So why did we change our mind (we never built them, so could hardly be said to remove them)? Two reasons. Iran is a real threat. Russia could be a real threat. We no longer have to pay off Poland for rendition services. It is more cost efficient and, as a weapon system, more efficient to deploy these anti-missiles from mobile transports (sea and land).

In AvWeek they showed the first pictures of the land-based systems’ launchers. I suspect even the last administration had no real intention of handing the keys to our brightest technology to a right-wing state like Poland. And this administration certainly does not.

And the Czech Republic? They made hardly a peep. Why? There had been ample employment promised, it could have made them appear stronger. But, in the end, the bulls-eye was too much of a price to pay. A peace- loving people, the Czechs, they saw that and said, “Phew, thanks, take it all away.�

Meanwhile, Poland, the land that just passed an almost unanimous law to chemically castrate sex offenders (those they do not execute or beat to death before trial), is having some hundreds of its citizens answer to the claims in a book, “Spies in the Vatican� by John Koehler that shows a long-standing cooperation with the most brutal communist authorities — so long standing and brutal that it became Pope John Paul’s mission to bring them, and the leaders down, including an Archbishop who was denounced on the eve of his installation (and possibly colluded to arrange John Paul’s assassination attempt — an order co-signed by Gorbachev).

The pity is, some of these brutal types just changed the title on the door and are lurking, waiting for their turn to come again. Until they are all exposed and removed from power, these are hardly people with whom America should be sharing our most top-secret technology.

The writer lives in New Mexico. He formerly lived in Amenia Union.