(Drudge) Poles, Czechs: US missile defense shift a betrayal

WARSAW, Poland – Poles and Czechs voiced deep concern Friday at President Barack Obama's decision to scrap a Bush-era missile defense shield planned for their countries.

"Betrayal! The U.S. sold us to Russia and stabbed us in the back," the Polish tabloid Fakt declared on its front page.

Polish President Lech Kaczynski said he was concerned that Obama's new strategy leaves Poland in a dangerous "gray zone" between Western Europe and the old Soviet sphere.

Recent events in the region have rattled nerves throughout central and eastern Europe, a region controlled by Moscow during the Cold War, including the war last summer between Russia and Georgia and ongoing efforts by Russia to regain influence in Ukraine. A Russian cutoff of gas to Ukraine last winter left many Europeans without heat.

The Bush administration's plan would have been "a major step in preventing various disturbing trends in our region of the world," Kaczynski said in a guest editorial in the daily Fakt and also carried on his presidential Web site.....

• An editorial in Hospodarske Novine, a respected pro-business Czech newspaper, said: "an ally we rely on has betrayed us, and exchanged us for its own, better relations with Russia, of which we are rightly afraid."....
• "No Radar. Russia won," the largest Czech daily, Mlada Fronta Dnes, declared in a front-page headline....

Colored Pen

Russia Warns/Threatens Poland

(Props to Drudge Report and HotAir)

The Bear Says:

• "Poland, by deploying (the system) is exposing itself to a strike — 100 percent," Nogovitsyn, the deputy chief of staff, was quoted as saying.

Some footage from YNET of an Israeli news crew almost getting shot by Russian soldiers... the soldier’s (possibly drunk) then stole a car.

Turkish Press comes under fire of Ossetian Troops (there is an English translation - subtitles as soon as you get to the actual event.) By-the-way, it is hard to know whether these are pro-Russian/Ossetian troops or pro-Georgian troops:

I would not be rolling aruond Georgia right now filming!

No more G-8, only a G-7? Fast-Track Ukraine.

Again, the Ukraine straddles four NATO countries and can easily be defended. They must "fast-track" the Ukraine as that would be a country Russia, if truly after oil, would need.

U.S. and Poland sign missile shield deal

(Drudge Report props)

WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland finally agreed on Thursday to host elements of U.S. global anti-missile system on its territory after Washington improved the terms of the deal amid the Georgia crisis.

The preliminary deal was signed by deputy Polish Foreign Minister Andrzej Kremer and U.S. chief negotiator John Rood. It still needs to be endorsed by the Polish parliament.

The signing comes after Prime Minister Donald Tusk had been holding out for enhanced military cooperation with the United States in return for consent to host 10 interceptor rockets at a base in northern Poland.

Washington says the interceptors and a radar in the Czech Republic would form part of a global "missile shield" protecting the United States and its allies from long range missiles that could in the future be fired by Iran or groups such as al-Qaeda....

nAtO