Missile Defence: Good for Europe, bad for Canada

I wonder when the NDP and Liberals will scream bloody murder; Canadians now seem to be...

...in the curious situation of opting into a missile defence system to protect Europe, after having opted out of one to protect their own country...

The latest:

NATO Endorses Europe Missile Shield

...Mr. Bush could claim success in persuading NATO to endorse his missile-defense plan in the face of Russian objections, and on Thursday signed an agreement with the Czech Republic to build radar for the system.

“There has been, over 10 years, a real debate as to whether there is a ballistic missile threat,” said Mr. Bush’s national security adviser, Stephen J. Hadley. “And I think that debate ended today.”..

Mr. Putin has objected strongly to building parts of the missile defense system in former Soviet bloc states, despite Washington’s assurances that the system is a response to threats from Iran, not from Russia. Mr. Putin, saying the system would fuel a new arms race, has even threatened to aim Russian missiles at the system, while also offering the use of a substitute system in Azerbaijan.

NATO’s final statement invited Russia to cooperate with the United States and Europe on developing defenses jointly...

But somehow I just can't see Prime Minister Harper reviving the issue of Canadian participation in North American missile defence. More on that system here (the US is proposing the same system for Poland/Czech Republic.

As for NATO generally, I fear there is a lot of truth (though also some exaggeration) in this piece in Spiegel Online:

The smiles in Bucharest were little more than show. Politically, the NATO summit was a fiasco. The Western alliance remains deeply divided and faces an identity crisis -- with Russian relations just one of the alliance's many points of dispute...

And the Greeks blocking Macedonia's path to joining...

Mark C.

Posted by markc at April 5, 2008 09:34 AM