NATO: sure, USA can keep missiles in Europe

There's controversial, and then there's controversial. And then there's bone-shaking, teeth-grinding, ultra-ultra controversial. No prizes for guessing which category NATO have fallen into.

NATO officials yesterday granted the green light to a US missile defence system that would be stationed in both Poland and the Czech Republic. While heralding the move themselves as one which would be a "substantive contribution to the protection of the allies", certain countries aren't all too pleased about the gigantic radar shield that will form part of the network. Namely Russia.

Russia has decided that a huge surveillance system peering over the EU might be a bit of a "destabilising" influence, and especially isn't happy that some of the construction work will be taking place on territory involved with the Warsaw Pact. Hopefully no-one is going to tell them about the USA's plans for 2009, which entails replacing the moon with a giant eyeball and taking down every single radio station in favour of an Abraham Lincoln impersonator saying "we're watching you" over and over again.

Nato's secretary-general Jaap de Hoop Scheffer is remaining steadfast, though, insisting that the whole enterprise is a good idea, adding that "allied security must be indivisible" when it comes to the multitude of threats that face us.

The official British line on this? We're going to have to wait and see. But - let's be honest - who are you expecting us to support?

Written by C J Davies on 4 Apr 2008 12:56 AM. Permalink