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Paroubek's Populist Goulash

1. 8. 2010 / Boris Cvek

I never doubted that the Social Democrats were actually in favor of this project, and that Paroubek just misused the issue in his populism. All his opposition to the American system was just well calculated populism, once he couldn't really count with the Social Democrats or any other party in our Parliament, with the exception of the Communists, going against the orientation of Czech Republic towards the U.S. and NATO.

It would also be absurd to believe that the whole American anti-missile system was just a George W. Bush project and that it would've been annulled after he left the White House. I'd like to hear from those who oppose the radar the truth: that they are against NATO itself, which activists like Mr Tamáš would certainly confirm. I am not saying that pacifism is not a noble idea, but history shows how pacifism can't protect us from crooks taking power over masses of unarmed lambs... At the moment there is no reason to believe that we live in a different planet that this one, where pacifism is not enough to fight the powerful.

The "popular resistance" against the anti-missile system in Czech lands was not really inspired by pacifism (and the radar opponents unfortunately haven't declared themselves very openly as pacifists), but much more as a generalized opposition to the Topolánek government.

On the other hand, it would be very welcome the criticism of the American anti-missile project for "not being very effective", "lack of transparency", "it won't really protect" etc.

Our common interest is for the radar to work well and for it to be a meaningful defense system, instead of something that won't work that effectively or will be too expensive. Paroubek's anti-radar campaign avoided dealing with those questions. Now, the Social Democrats will certainly vote for any project blessed by NATO. And nobody with good sense can criticize them for that.

What the Social Democrats can be criticized is for having allowed this military issue to be misused by Paroubek in his populist goulash.

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