Poland has supported the United States in Iraq in 2003 got very little in return

Peter Spiegel and Kim Murphy in Washington
July 3, 2007

THE Russian President, Vladimir Putin, became the first foreign leader to be a guest of the US President, George Bush, at his family's summer home on the coast of Maine on Sunday, enjoying a speedboat ride and lobster dinner before talks that were designed to smooth a relationship that has hit rough times.

Relations between the two countries reached a high point after the attacks of September 11, 2001, when Mr Putin became the first foreign leader to express condolences. Since then, disagreements, most critically over US plans to install missile-defence facilities in Eastern Europe, have damaged relations to the point where Mr Putin recently compared the US to Nazi Germany.

But even as the Bush Administration courts Mr Putin to gain approval for the missile system, support is thin and fading in Washington, Prague and Warsaw, the three capitals where legislatures must approve the system.

The growing opposition reflects what politicians and analysts view as the Administration's mishandling of the issue, and Mr Bush's declining influence on Capitol Hill and among once-staunch allies in what his Administration has called "new Europe".

"The US clearly mismanaged this roll-out," said Bruce Jackson, a former Pentagon official who has worked closely with the new democracies of Eastern Europe.

In Washington, the House of Representatives has approved legislation that strips funding for the tracking radar in the Czech Republic, and for silos for 10 interceptor missiles in Poland, meant to defend against any Iranian missile attack. The Congress is concerned that allies have not been properly consulted and that the Pentagon has yet to prove the system actually works.

Poland and the Czech Republic publicly back the proposal but their governments hold shaky parliamentary majorities and are facing growing opposition.

Senior Bush Administration officials insist there is still time to regain momentum. But time is not on their side. Officials at the Pentagon's Missile Defence Agency said they would need to break ground within the next year to ensure the system was ready by 2013. Iran might be capable of deploying long-range missiles by 2015, based on US intelligence estimates. More importantly, Mr Bush has just over 18 months left in office.

Russia regards the missile system as a potentially hostile move. But the most heated debate is in Poland, where many believe Warsaw has done favours for the US, including sending troops to Iraq, without reciprocation.

"There is this general idea that Poland has supported the United States in Iraq in 2003 and we got very little in return - or we got nothing in return - and we should not repeat the same mistakes we made then," said Piotr Maciej Kaczynski, an analyst at the Institute for Public Affairs in Warsaw.

One powerful opponent, the former Polish defence minister Radoslaw Sikorski, has argued that the system could endanger Poland because Russia has threatened to aim missiles at it if the US base is allowed. "This will be the first pro-American decision that I believe the Polish public will simply not take," Mr Sikorski said.