Upon opening today’s email from Prague Daily Monitor, two headlines caught my eye.“Czechs against proposed US missile base, says poll” and, under it,
“Cabaniss: Czechs oppose US missile base due to lack of information”.
William “Cannabis” Cabaniss is the ignorant and arrogant US ambassador to the Czech Republic.
Jaroslav Hadrava of Median, the agency that conducted the poll for Mladá fronta Dnes, agrees with Cannabis: “People do not have enough information about what the permanent presence of American units would mean for them. So worries and often fear prevail in them.”
Perhaps Jaroslav “I like to talk out of my arse” Hadrava does not know enough of his own nation’s history. Which is surprising, because Czechs have a fascinating history and most of them know it well.
The Lands of the Bohemian Crown were absorbed into the Habsburg Empire in the year 1526 and the Czechs were ruled from, and occupied by, Austria until 1918.
Czechoslovakia existed as a free and democratic republic from 1918 to 1939.
The Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was occupied by the Nazis from 1939 to 1945.
Czechoslovakia was more or less free from 1945 to 1948, which is when the Communists took over. In 1968 Warsaw Pact forces invaded Czechoslovakia, and the Soviets remained in occupation of the country until 1989.
Czech and Slovakia have been free since 1989.
Which means that, in the last 480 years, Czechs have been free, unoccupied and autonomous for about 41 years. I think that is enough information for 83% of Czechs to rationally decide that they are opposed to a permanent US military presence on their territory.
3 comments:
I couldn't agree with you more. As an american (embarrassed to say that) who has lived in Prague for three years, my brother for ten, the ignorant and arrogant american public do not deserve to have their soldiers on Czech soil. Lets start by giving Czechs the same visa privledges as the rest of the EU countries, sans Slovakia and Hungary. Just a small "thank you" for sending troops to our moron's bs war based on lies. I was treated great by ALL of the czech people and I personally told them that I supported a czech society free from foreigners, including americans and British expats. This should go to referendum, but I'm not personally sure how that works in czech politics. Keep the Republic pure, or you will end up with something worse than the Soviets. I am back in the police state now and cant wait to come back to my new home in the EU. Good luck!
Anon, thanks for your comments. I don't know about keeping the Republic "pure", but I agree that the Czechs have to be careful to maintain their sovereignty.
As for a referendum, it would be possible. In fact, Jiří Paroubek (ČSSD, out-going prime minister) has already announced that he will want a referendum if the US chooses Czech for their missile base. Unfortunately, Mirek Topolánek (ODS and incoming PM) has already announced that he believes Parliament should make the decision.
wow
if anonymous is an American - anonymous has lost all power to write an idiomatic American English sentence. Or even a grammatically consistent one.
Why would anyone push for an ethnically "pure" czech republic? What are foreigners then? Are the gypsies and the few jews left also foreigners? are the few volksdeutcher foreigners? Doesn't being a member of the EU allow all citizens of the EU to reside and work in the Czech republic? And even buy land? (even if they are ethnically German and perhaps even had family who resided in Czechoslovakia?)
I'm simply astounded. wtf as we say we're in Studio City.
Post a Comment