Czechs reject US radar base

While the US media endlessly twitters about bad jokes on Jay Leno and Joe the Plumber's sexual state, the rest of the world conducts some serious business. The lesson here is that our media is inane but activism works if you work at it.

In a major setback for Pentagon plans to install a U.S. military radar base in the Czech Republic, the Czech government yesterday withdrew, at least for now (and possibly for good), its proposal to ratify an agreement on the base. [...]

Thanks to the tireless activities of anti radar groups in the country, the No Bases Initiative and the Nonviolence Movement, popular opinion remained strongly mobilized against the radar. This public opposition culminated in a likely no vote in the Chamber. [...]

The anti-radar movement has drawn support from around the world from people alarmed by the dangerous military escalation of the proposed European missile defense program of the Czech radar and its companion Interceptor missiles in Poland.

Campaign for Peace and Democracy also circulated an internet petition signed by hundreds of Americans, including me, that was submitted to the Czech government on Monday. The Prime Minister claims the deal isn't dead yet but anti-radar activists are determined to keep pushing back until it is. You can still sign the petition here.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]