Six in Ten Poles Oppose U.S. Anti-Missile Base

Six in Ten Poles Oppose U.S. Anti-Missile Base

August 31, 2006

Poles are among the few nations that hold generally positive views of the United States. But a poll published Aug. 10, 2006, in the Polish daily Rzeczpospolita found that 63 percent of Poles were against allowing the United States to build an anti-missile site on Polish soil. Less than a quarter of those surveyed (23%) were in favor and 14 percent expressed no opinion.

The New York Times reported in May that the Pentagon was considering deploying 10 anti-missile interceptors in Europe by 2011. The shield would be designed to deflect an attack by Iran against the United States or Europe. Two countries were mentioned as possible locations for the base: Poland and the Czech Republic.

The polling firm GfK Polonia asked 983 Poles about the issue from Aug. 4-6.

Poland, which still has more than 1,000 troops deployed in Iraq, is one of the United States’ closest allies in Europe. It is also one of the few nations where public attitudes toward the United States have improved over the past year, according to a 33 – nation poll completed in January 2006 by GlobeScan and the Program on International Policy Attitudes for the BBC World Service. Sixty-two percent of Poles expressed a positive opinion about the United States in the 2006 poll, up from 52 percent in 2005. Poland was one of only eight countries where a majority viewed the United States favorably

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1 Comment

  1. Author

    Rzeczpospolita link does not respond

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