“We want US troops on our territory because we are hostile towards Russia. But we cannot say this publicly. It would not be politically correct.”

Czech government officials

Czech government US radar liaison officer Klvaňa confirmed that the Czech government wants to have US soldiers on its soil because it is afraid of Russia.

A Czech citizen's fistful of impressions from a Prague debate on the US radar to be stationed in the Czech Republic. The debate took place in Prague, 19th December, 2007.

This is a shortened version of an article in Czech, available from HERE. A recording (in Czech) of the whole debate is HERE


The members of the debating panel included representatives of the government – the US radar spokesman Klvaňa, representatives of the Defence Ministry and Foreign Ministry. The members of the public were Professor of Political Science Oskar Krejčí of Prague University of International Relations and of Banská Bystrica University and journalist Štěpán Kotrba from Britské listy. Marek Jehlička, formerly the cannabis ombudsman, was the moderator.

It was clear from the introductory remarks made by the representatives of the government that they were trying to create the impression of fake dangers against which we must allegedly defend ourselves. The representatives of the government talked about fanatics, about how the Euro-Atlantic Civilisation is threatened by them, about the Middle East. Quite cleverly, they were trying to avoid using the word Iran, since this is a scarecrow which no longer works, just as the scarecrow called North Korea.

The whole debate gave the impression that these “frightening” arguments were being used by the Czech government only perfunctorily and the government wants to persuade the opponents of the radar to give up their resistance by using “positive incentives”, subsidies, grants, gifts – money. Ridiculously small amounts of money given to the mayors and councillors of the Brdy villages are being successful in neutralising the resistance of the citizens. This is a clever strategy, especially in the Czech Republic.

I asked about the statement, made by the Alexander Vondra, the former Czech ambassador to the US, at the Heritage Foundation. “For us in the Czech Republic, which lies between Germany and Russia, an installation with a certain number of US troops would be good,” said Vondra and a part of this statement was broadcast by Czech TV. In response to my question Klvaňa reacted as an absolute professional: he put me down saying that he does not remember such a statement.

Alas, his collaborators were not as good as he is and they said what they surely were not supposed to say in public. The trap for them opened when the common EU oil policy was discussed. The Czech government representatives began complaining of Germany. There are problems with Germany. Germany does not want to obey, or if it does obey, it does not do so as willingly as it should. Germany has organised the building of an oil pipeline from Russia on the Baltic seabed, bypassing pro-American Poland.

Then followed heart-breaking descriptions of how difficult is the relationship of the Czech government with Russia. Good old Yeltsin, vodka was enough for him. NATO, USA and even Mr. President George Bush are offering so many things to Russia but Russia doesn't cooperate. In the past few years, Russia has been simply behaving badly.

I played, from my mobile phone, a recording of the voice of the Czech premier Topolánek: “We must not allow our country again to fall into the geopolitical sphere of Russia. This is the real reason why the US radar base must be built in this country. This is why it is important to keep this government in power.” Topolánek said these things at the recent congress of his party, the ODS. The recording is available on the ODS website.

I asked the government representatives whether this statement by the Czech Prime Minister would become a part of the pro-US radar public information campaign. So far, all the Czech newspapers have been telling us that the US missile base was not aimed at Russia. I also asked whether it was indeed true that the sole reason for the existence of the current Czech government was the building of the US missile base in the Czech Republic.

I was very much surprised because the government officials told me that the Czech Prime Minister was, in essence, correct. When I asked why the Czech government does not spell out clearly that they want the US antimissile base built in the Czech Republic as protection against Russia, a government representative said that I must understand that it would not be politically correct to say this openly. A representative of the Czech Foreign Ministry added that it was not possible to tell the Russian delegation openly during negotiations that the Czech government assumes such a hostile position against them. Klvaňa confirmed this. Journalist Štěpán Kotrba then asked him whether he was speaking as a government representative or as a private person. He said that he was speaking as a government representative. A bombshell.

Later, a representative of the Foreign Ministry denied that February 2008 is the final deadline for the decision about the US radar by the Czech Republic. He said that the Foreign Ministry or the Czech government had never announced such a date.

Then the participants asked how the radar might be protecting the Czech Republic (the government representatives again talked about the Middle Eastern threats, they admitted that the radar could not protect the Czech Republic from the Russian missiles). Here, the government side was very well prepared and cleverly moved about within the information fog that they had created. They know how to make out that the radar would protect the Czech Republic, without spelling out how it will actually be able to do so. When anyone asks for any details, they say that technical information is classified.

The Czech government representatives were visibly pleased when someone asked why the US are stockpiling arms and increasing tension rather than disarming. They are used to rejecting such arguments. They want people to ask them questions like these.

On being asked how long the US troops would be stationed on Czech territory, the government representatives answered obliquely, using exactly the same clichés as the old communist regime. When one of the government representatives said that the stationing of the US troops would be “temporary”, he was told off by a smiling Klvaňa. Was this a mistake or a deliberately staged scene?

Whenever anybody asked any concrete question, the government representatives always said that they could not answer because such information was classified.

In the end, I asked Klvaňa in the corridor, what benefit the Czech Republic might have from the building of the US radar base on its territory. He told me that this was still under negotiation, so it was – again - classified information, but “we will be pleasantly suprised”.


Source (Czech): Britské listy