U.S. Defense Deal With Poland Stirs Angry Russian Rhetoric

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• RAY SUAREZ:

  The rhetoric from Russia today was its harshest ever on the issue of missile defense. The foreign ministry said Russia would have to respond with more than diplomatic words to the deal signed today between Poland and the United States to set up part of a U.S. missile defense system in northern Poland.

  It's supposed to be part of a shield against long-range missiles from Iran. But in addition to 10 interceptor rockets, the package includes Patriot missiles, which can only hit incoming missiles fired by a nearby enemy.

  Russian military officials have said Poland is opening itself to attack by agreeing to deploy the U.S. rockets.

  Today, Secretary of State Rice said those comments "border on the bizarre." Months of negotiations between the U.S. and Poland came to a quick conclusion just days after Russia sent troops to Georgia.

  Two views now. John Isaacs is executive director for both the Council for a Livable World and the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation. Fred Kagan is a resident scholar specializing in defense issues at the American Enterprise Institute.

  And, Fred Kagan, why did the United States do this right now?

• FREDERICK KAGAN, American Enterprise Institute:

  Well, we have been negotiating this deal with the Poles for quite a long time. I do suspect that the timing was connected with the Russian actions in Georgia.

  And I think that it's important to keep in mind that, after Russia invaded Georgian territory, the president of Poland, along with the presidents of the Baltic states, issued a very strong statement, earning a rebuke from Moscow.

  I think the Poles have come to recognize the danger that they face in this new world that Putin's aggression in Georgia has created. And it made it easier to get the deal through.

  And I also think that we recognize the necessity of providing Georgia with defensive weapons systems that will protect — I'm sorry, Poland — that will protect Poland itself from possible Russian attacks of the sort that we've seen in Georgia. So that's why I think we threw in the Patriot missile batteries, as well.

• RAY SUAREZ:

  John Isaacs, do you accept Fred Kagan's proposition that the invasion of Georgia helped speed up an agreement with Poland on this citing?

  JOHN ISAACS, Council for a Livable World: I certainly accept that, but it certainly also gives the lie to the Bush administration's case that it's making for many months, many years, that this missile defense system that we're going to deploy in Poland was directed at Iran and certainly not at Russia.

  Well, I think what Condoleezza Rice said today, the Polish leaders, some American politicians have made it clear, this missile defense system fuels the Russian fears of what they've been saying all along, that the missile defense system is really directed at them.