Poland Agrees to Host US Missile System

Poland and the US signed a preliminary agreement to install US interceptor missiles on Polish soil today, the Telegraph reports. The move is widely seen as a response to Russian aggression in Georgia, a notion buttressed by the Polish prime minister. “The events in the Caucasus show clearly that such security guarantees are indispensable,” said Donald Tusk. Talks have been ongoing for a year.

The US says the missile defense system, which would work in tandem with a radar system in the Czech Republic, is designed to prevent missile strikes from rogue nations such as Iran. Russia adamantly opposes it, but one analyst says Moscow's advances in Georgia have spooked former Iron Curtain nations. “There's a feeling…that the tanks could roll over their borders too. There's a certain urgency now.”
(More ballistic missile program stories.)