Or Toast, baby.
PRAGUE — The United States signed a pact on Tuesday to build part of a U.S. missile defence shield in the Czech Republic, prompting neighbouring Russia to warn it will react with military means if the shield is deployed.
The U.S. and Czech foreign ministers toasted with champagne after signing the accord to place a tracking radar southwest of Prague as part of a system to protect against the perceived threat of missile attack from countries such as Iran.
But Russia, in a statement reminiscent of Cold War rhetoric, warned the United States against deploying the shield close to its borders.
"If the real deployment of an American strategic missile defence shield begins close to our borders, then we will be forced to react not with diplomatic methods, but with military-technical methods," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement on its www.mid.ru website...
The deal is opposed by many in the Czech Republic, where it requires parliamentary approval. Many Czechs are wary of any foreign military presence after the Soviet invasion in 1968 and the ensuing two decades of occupation. An opinion poll last month showed 68 per cent of Czechs were against the shield.
"We believe that this could start another arms race," said Frantisek Smrcka, who with other protesters in the Czech capital unfurled a huge banner shaped like a bull's-eye...
Could? It's supposed to start a new arms race.
One can only hope that the Czech Republic has more democracy than the Amerikan Empire, where 80% of the people can oppose the government by voting Congressional control to an opposition without it changing things in the least.
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