Under the radar

Everyone is aware of the U.S. occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. Many are aware of U.S. intervention—military and otherwise—in Pakistan, throughout Latin America and increasingly in Africa. However, the ever more aggressive role of the Pentagon and NATO in Eastern Europe and the former USSR usually passes under most people’s radar.

For three weeks, two anti-war Czechs went on a hunger strike to protest that government’s plans to let the U.S. build an exceedingly dangerous “anti-missile” base right in Central Europe. Jan Tamáš and Jan Bednář—whose liver failure had put his life in danger—ended their action June 2, but their struggle has grown. By the time they went off their hunger strike, others had joined them in hunger strikes in Australia, Italy, the United Sates, Spain and Germany as well as in the Czech Republic.

Well might they protest. U.S. imperialism wants to make Czech territory house radar that is part of an anti-missile shield, allegedly against rockets launched from the Middle East. This 21st-century “Star Wars” scheme gives the Pentagon an advantage in a first strike against Russia, so the Russian government has complained bitterly about the project.

The Czech population, understandably, in its large majority doesn’t want to live under the radar. But the right-wing regime, which has to depend on Washington and the Pentagon because of its anti-worker policies, is trying to close the deal with the U.S. and turn Czechs into imperialist pawns.

The U.S.-Czech radar base has slipped under the radar here, since both Democratic and Republican parties support NATO and U.S. imperialist expansion in that region of the world, since the media work hand-in-glove with the Pentagon, and since they all believe this piecemeal aggression is working smoothly for U.S. imperialism.

However, anger is rising at the huge expense of predatory military programs. In Poland, too, where the missiles themselves are to be deployed, popular indignation is rising, as well as the fear this will turn the country into a legitimate target. And so the Pentagon thinks the best defense of this boondoggle for the military-industrial complex is to keep it low profile.

We wish Jan Tamáš and Jan Bednář well and thank them for making the sacrifice that brings another area of U.S. imperialist aggression to the attention of the world.

Anyone who would like to sign a petition against the bases or find out more about the struggle to stop them, see BasesOutNow.org, a Web site of an organization in the U.S. in solidarity with the worldwide struggle to stop these bases.