DAR AL HARB - E.U.:THE EUROPEANS UNSURE ABOUT MISSILE DEFENSE

Europeans put off by Russian threats

WASHINGTON: When the United States first asked Poland and the Czech Republic to host missile defenses, the interceptors and radar were cast as a prudent hedge against Iran and a guarantee that Europe's security was indivisible from that of America, which is moving ahead with defenses for its own territory.

But with the rejection by Russia of a new American invitation to cooperate on missile defense - a rebuff that carried an exclamation point on Thursday when the Kremlin threatened to pull out of a treaty on conventional arms in Europe - the initiative now risks driving Moscow further into isolation and dividing the European public over the future of its shared security.

The caustic exchanges between Washington and Moscow, which many Europeans fear will knock the lid off the ash bin of Cold War history, offered just the latest example of how the United States and Russia both say they want to work together, but instead talk past each other.

The United States says missile defense bases proposed for nations formerly in the Soviet sphere of influence are all about Iran, which American intelligence agencies have said is developing missiles capable of reaching Europe, as well as trying to achieve the means of producing nuclear weapons. Moscow says that it is all about Moscow, that the any Iranian threat is years away and that the bases would in fact serve as a Trojan horse hauled close to Russia's border.

The United States says that its invitation to share missile defense technology and operate radar sites together would allow Russia to enter a mature partnership with the United States and NATO, and that it is a win-win situation. The Kremlin responds that every act of post Cold War conciliation by Moscow has done little to improve Russian security.

Even before negotiations begin in earnest, both sides are staking out hard positions. While eager to calm Russian concerns by pledging cooperation and transparency, the United States says Moscow will have no veto over American missile defense bases in Central Europe. In response, Moscow has said that the new U.S. offer has done nothing to alter its unwavering opposition to American missile defenses in Europe, and that it is prepared to kick the legs out from under other arms control agreements to show its anger.

To be sure, the missile-defense debate is only in its opening scene, and will play out on the diplomatic stage for months - and perhaps even longer. The two missile-defense sites, expected to cost about $3.5 billion, are still years away.

At some level, the debate over the missile-defense system is not even about interceptors and radar installations. Their effectiveness is a matter of conjecture. It is about Russia's perception of, and insecurity about, its role in Westward-facing Europe.

Thus, both Washington and Moscow are playing to the populations of Poland and the Czech Republic, whose Parliaments would have to approve the bases, and beyond, to a broader and quite ambivalent European public.

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