[E-rundbrief] Info 862 - US-Raketenschild storniert

Matthias Reichl info at begegnungszentrum.at
Do Sep 24 19:22:03 CEST 2009


E-Rundbrief - Info 862 - Joanne Landy and Thomas Harrison (Campaign for 
Peace and Democracy, USA): Missile shield cancellation 'a victory to be 
celebrated around the world' (including statements of Czech anti-radar 
activists).

Bad Ischl, 24.9.2009

Begegnungszentrum für aktive Gewaltlosigkeit

www.begegnungszentrum.at

================================================

Missile shield cancellation 'a victory to be celebrated around the world'.

Joanne Landy and Thomas Harrison

September 24, 2009 14:48

But much remains to be done, say US peace activists

The cancellation of the 'missile shield' - shorthand for the deployment 
by NATO of a military radar installation in the Czech Republic and 
Interceptor missiles in Poland - is a great victory for the peace 
movement around the world, and deserves to be celebrated, even if much 
remains to be done to combat US military power. Joanne Landy and Thomas 
Harrison of the US Campaign for Peace and Democracy sent us this report.

The majority of Czech and Polish people never supported these proposed 
U.S. military bases -- though you would never know it from reading the 
American media with its recent headlines about the cancellation of the 
bases such as "Eastern Europe Grumbles About Downgrade in US Ties," 
"Poles, Czechs: US Missile Defense Shift a Betrayal," or, perhaps most 
preposterous of all, "Eastern Europe Not Feeling the Love From Obama." 
These headlines make the classic error of presuming that the views of 
governments are necessarily the same as those of the people.

In the Czech Republic, relentless mass protest prevented the Czech 
Chamber of Deputies from ratifying the radar agreement: opponents 
engaged in a whole range of creative actions against the proposed base, 
from petition drives and marches to hunger strikes and street theatre. 
Czech anti-radar activists succeeded in gaining the support of many 
politicians in their own country, and in generating solidarity around 
the world .

We can only speculate about the Obama administration's actual motives in 
cancelling these missile "defence" plans. It was conceivably a simple 
military modernization to deploy more effective anti-missile weapons, as 
Defence Secretary Robert Gates has claimed. It may have been an attempt 
to moderate wasteful military spending, as administration spokespersons 
have said, since replacement weapons will cost less than those 
originally planned. It may have been an attempt to conciliate the 
Russians, who have seen the bases in Poland and the Czech Republic as 
the seeds of a threat to their own strategic military capability; the 
administration hopes to enlist the Russians in imposing heightened 
sanctions on Iran if it refuses to cooperate on nuclear issues. But, 
though they are never likely to admit it, the administration and the 
Pentagon also had to take into consideration the dangerous consequences 
of trying to install these new bases in the face of negative popular 
opinion in the Czech Republic and Poland and the prospect of militant 
and very public resistance in the Czech Republic.

In an article in the New York Times on September 19, Gates made a point 
of stating that, "The future of missile defence in Europe is secure." He 
says the Pentagon plans to soon "deploy proven, sea-based SM-3 
interceptor missiles -- weapons that are growing in capability -- in the 
areas where we see the greatest threat to Europe, and in about 2015, to 
place "upgraded SM-3s on the ground in Southern and Central Europe.

We are not reassured by these plans for military escalation, and we do 
not believe that such escalation is the way to respond to the threat of 
future Iranian nuclear capability. Instead, as we said in our original 
2007 sign-on statement against the Czech radar, "The United States and 
other nuclear powers can best reduce the danger of nuclear warfare by 
taking major steps toward both nuclear and conventional disarmament and 
refraining from waging or threatening 'preventive' war -- not by 
expanding the nuclear threat. Such steps by the existing nuclear powers 
would create a political context that would powerfully discourage new 
countries from developing their own nuclear weapons."

Czech groups opposed to the radar have been celebrating their victory: 
"We have been active more than three years in the struggle to prevent 
this plan from materializing. We are very happy that finally the 
position of the US administration is in line with the will of majority 
of Czechs," said Jan Tamas, spokesman of the Nonviolence movement, one 
of the Czech groups active in opposing the radar.

Another Czech anti-radar group, the No Bases Initiative, released a 
statement that said, in part,
"The struggle against the radar has always been the struggle for 
democracy, for the right to decide on the principal orientation of the 
country in a referendum. Despite all difficulties and the arrogant and 
ignorant behaviour of many politicians, it is clear that an important 
victory in our common struggle has been achieved. We should remember 
this, no matter how the situation develops in the future. It has been 
meaningful to sign the anti-radar petition and demonstrate against the 
radar, it has been meaningful to pose questions to the members of the 
Parliament and put pressure on them. Civic protest is meaningful. For 
the civic No Bases Initiative (Ne zakladnam), this is not the end of our 
activities. We will go on, enriched by this experience. Nor does it mean 
the end of the U.S. anti-missile defence projects; discussion has 
already started about alternatives to the radar in the Czech Republic 
and to the missiles in Poland. But a the really good news remains - that 
we have been able to prove, within the broad anti-radar movement, and 
hand in hand with all those who took part in the most diverse anti-radar 
activities during these three years, that we have the power to change 
things to for the better."
We join with our Czech colleagues in belief that "civic protest is 
meaningful." We are committed to continuing the fight against nuclear 
escalation, missile "defence," and U.S. militarism, including the 
growing wars against Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Joanne Landy and Thomas Harrison are Co-Directors of the Campaign for 
Peace and Democracy (USA). This statement has been edited slightly for 
the benefit of non-US readers.

http://www.spectrezine.org/war/Landy.htm


-- 

Matthias Reichl, Pressesprecher/ press speaker,
Begegnungszentrum fuer aktive Gewaltlosigkeit
Center for Encounter and active Non-Violence
Wolfgangerstr. 26, A-4820 Bad Ischl, Austria,
fon: +43 6132 24590, Informationen/ informations,
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