Read This: Euro MD Fact Sheet, Lack of Polish-Czech Popular Support for Bush Plan

At Information Dissemination, Galrahn posted a fact sheet on Aegis ballistic missile defense. Flag it – it’s going to come in handy in the months ahead. He also took aim at the strategic rationale for the system and conservatives’ unwise decision to make "F--- the Russians!" the theme of their polemical attacks against the administration’s plan.

The Monkey Cage – a great blog for those interested in political science – posted some interesting analysis from Northwestern’s Andrew Roberts, who wrote:

There is a meme circulating in the media that by withdrawing support for a missile-defense shield based in the Czech Republic and Poland, Barack Obama is letting down our close allies in these two countries. But it is not quite clear who we are letting down.

[snip]

...over the past three years, a nearly unchanged two-thirds of the [Czech] public has been opposed to construction of the radar and an even higher percentage has desired a referendum on the issue (presumably in order to vote against it; the data used to construct the graph are available here.) And this despite considerable government propaganda and public antipathy towards Russia.

[snip]

…data show somewhat less opposition [in Poland] than in the Czech Republic, but still a relatively consistent 60% of the [Polish] public has been opposed to basing missiles in the country. Opposition did drop somewhat after the Russia-Georgia crisis, but at the time of the treaty signing in August 2008, 67% of respondents were opposed. And bear in mind that Polish attitudes towards Russia are even more negative.

Here are Roberts’s graphs:

Czech Republic

Poland