Russia Threatening Poland

The Telegraph (UK) reported today on the statements of a Russian general.

Earlier, a senior Russian general warned that Poland has made itself a nuclear target for Russia's military by hosting elements of a US anti-missile system.

"By hosting these, Poland is making itself a target. This is 100 per cent" certain, Russia's Interfax news agency quoted General Anatoly Nogovitsyn as saying.

"It becomes a target for attack. Such targets are destroyed as a first priority," Gen Nogovitsy was quoted as saying.

He added that Russia's military doctrine sanctions the use of nuclear weapons "against the allies of countries having nuclear weapons if they in some way help them," Interfax said. (emphasis added)

Did you get that? "A nuclear target." And for what?

The Telegraph reported yesterday that Russia's invasion of Georgia has spurred an agreement between the US and Poland.

The US and Poland have been talking about the missile shield for a year but rushed to cement their alliance in the wake of this week's conflict.

Donald Tusk, the prime minister, said that talks had been completed on a preliminary agreement and "technical questions remained".

Washington plans to site a silo of 10 interceptor missiles at the Brdy army base in northern Poland to accompany a radar installation in the Czech Republic. The radar station, probably to be sited at Gorsko, has already been agreed by Prague and is awaiting parliamentary ratification.

"We feel at the moment a greater concern for our safety," said Bogdan Klich, the Polish defence minister, evoking fears of a resurgent Russia, widespread in the former Eastern Bloc. "That's why every installation of the Western world on the Polish territory has its meaning, because it anchors Poland more deeply to the West."

While America says the shield is designed to destroy lone missiles from "rogue states" such as Iran, Russia considers it a strategic encirclement that undermines its nuclear deterrent. If fully agreed now, the system would be ready by around 2012.

Russia was against the installation of the missile defense system in Poland from the beginning, long before Georgia moved into its own South Ossetia region. And that says that Russia has continually been hostile to the West, mistrusting Bush's benign efforts at friendship.

We have multiple enemies in the world, and they're not limited to the Islamist-fanatic terrorists who want to destroy us. The Bush Administration would do well to wake up and smell the vodka.