Final Word from Tuesday, February 6, 2007
When the Central European countries were joining Nato and the EU, they had the strong backing of the U.S. This led to concern that Washington was devising a divide-and-conquer strategy in Europe. The Letter of Eight, which supported the Iraqi invasion and was signed by Václav Havel, strengthened this belief, but the U.S.'s position in the CR weakened under ČSSD. There's now a comeback attempt. Vice PM Alexandr Vondra, who helped with the Letter of Eight, is the champion of closer Czech-U.S. ties - manifested this time as a radar station - and is also leading the charge against the EU constitution. Speaking in MFD, he circuitously compared Angela Merkel's EU-treaty efforts to the build-up before the two World Wars and warned against another violent unification of Europe. It's almost as if his message is that Czechs should accept the radar station as defense against ... Germany.[Czech Republic European Union United States of America prime minister premier ODS missile defense base]