Rep. Franks Says Deal Resolves Concerns Of Congress; It Is Time To Fund European Defense

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski signed a deal for Poland to host missile interceptors as part of the European Missile Defense (EMD) system, adding to an earlier deal that Rice signed with the Czech Republic for a radar to be sited there.

The Polish action was a defiant rebuttal to warnings and threats issued by Russian opponents of the EMD system.

This Polish-U.S. concord is welcome news, and means that it is time for the American government to step forward and provide full funding for the EMD system that is to protect Europe and the United States against Iranian missiles, according to Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.), a member of the House Armed Services Committee and founding co-chairman of the bipartisan Congressional Missile Defense Caucus.

He noted that one requirement after another mandated by Congress now has been met.

"Throughout approximately 18 months of negotiations, Democrats in Congress raised multiple high bars for the European Site," Franks recalled.

"They wanted NATO’s support and stamp of approval, and we received that months ago.

"They wanted assurance that the site’s testing was sufficient, and we received that as well.

"And lastly, Democrats insisted on having the Czechs and the Poles agree to the installation as a pair, rather than as individual sovereign nations, which materialized in the formal agreement reached with Poland yesterday."

Now is the time to fund a critically needed protection for the United States and its allies, Franks said.

"Every objection has been addressed and every demand raised by the Democrats has now been met," he said. "It is now left to Congress to act swiftly in fully funding the" EMD.

However, legislation that Congress has passed also sets one further prerequisite for funding to become available for construction work at the Czech and Polish sites, and that is to obtain approval from the Czech and Polish parliaments.

Also, some lawmakers want still further testing of the EMD system, which basically employs an existing U.S. missile interceptor, except that for the EMD version one stage has been removed from that interceptor.

Ironically, those parliamentary approvals might be more likely to occur thanks to bombastic Russian opposition to the EMD, with leaders in Moscow venting virulent criticisms and a threat of military strikes on any EMD system if it is built, and launching a rampaging invasion of the sovereign state of Georgia as a warning to the Czechs, Poles and other former Soviet Union satellite states not to cooperate with the United States.

She termed the bluster from Moscow bizarre, and cautioned Russians not to toss out irresponsible warnings about using nuclear weapons on the EMD system.

Rice pointedly reminded the Russians that Poland is a member of NATO and an ally of the United States. At the signing ceremony in Poland, she cited "our great alliance with NATO and our Article 5 commitments to one another in that alliance. It will help both the alliance and Poland and the United States respond to the coming threats."

She pointed out that Poland is "fully integrated into the transatlantic structures of the European Union and NATO."

Russians repeated earlier allegations that the EMD interceptors in Poland would threaten to defeat Russian intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs. The United States has dismissed those claims as simply false, noting that there would be 10 EMD interceptors versus hundreds of Russian ICBMs and nuclear warheads, adding that the interceptors aren’t fast enough to catch any ICBM heading northward from Russia toward the United States.

In her comments at the signing ceremony, Rice also stressed that the EMD isn’t an offensive military system, but rather is defensive, protecting Europe and the United States from attack.

"Missile defense, of course, is aimed at no one," she said. "It is in our defense that we do this."

The top American diplomat also retraced the sometimes difficult history of Poland, including its subjugation by the Soviet Union during the Cold War, repeatedly contrasting that with the freedom that Poland enjoys today.

Not only will the EMD guard against the threat of missiles from Middle Eastern nations such as Iran, the deal with Poland will have the United States provide Poland with military upgrades that could help Poland defends itself from any Russian invasion similar to the invasion of Georgia.

Rice said the deal with Poland, the product of months of difficult negotiations, will be "an important shield against future threats."

Russia has been able to embark upon an immensely belligerent military and foreign policy because it is raking in staggering amounts of oil revenues coming, ultimately, from consumers in the United States and around the globe.

That money has financed rejuvenated Russian military operations reminiscent of the cold war, from long-range strategic bomber patrols near allied nations, to the invasion of Georgia.