Barack Obama won’t become U.S. president for more than a month, but he’s already being be­sieged by supporters and oppo­nents of his predecessor’s plan to build missile defense sites in Poland and the Czech Republic.

Supporters insist that Obama must act quickly in favor of the Eu­ropean missile defense system to reassure allies rattled recently by Russian threats to move medium­range missiles to the Polish border, and to thwart rapid progress Iran is making toward acquiring nuclear weapons.

Opponents warn that proceeding with the European missile sites could ignite a new arms race with Russia and thus must be blocked.

Both sides are trying to push mis­sile defense, a back-burner issue for the incoming president, closer to the top of his agenda.

Scholars at the conservative Her­itage Foundation warned Dec. 3 that Obama needs to decide soon to begin building missile silos in Poland and a radar base in the Czech Republic.

The U.S. Defense Department says the missile defense sites are in­tended to spot and shoot down any missiles that Iran might launch at U.S. allies in Europe or U.S. troops based there.

“Obama needs to make a decision right away, sooner rather than lat­er,” said Sally McNamara, a Her­itage senior policy analyst. Euro­pean allies including Poland and the Czech Republic feel threatened by Russia and are anxiously await­ing reassurance in the form of U.S. commitment to build the missile defense sites, she said.

Iian Berman said Iran is enriching uranium fast enough to produce enough for a nuclear weapon by 2010. Iran also is testing new ballis­tic missiles that could deliver the weapon, said Berman, vice presi­dent for policy at the American Foreign Policy Council.

McNamara and Berman’s sense of urgency got a boost from a flag­waving new Heritage Foundation video that warns of “the very real threat that hostile nations and rogue dictators pose to every Amer­ican and our friends and allies around the world.”

 A New Arms Race?

As the Heritage Foundation ar­gued for European missile defense, the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space delivered a letter signed by 700 urging Obama to “reject the Bush administration plan.” The organization, which was founded in 1992 to oppose weapons in space, says building the European missile defense sys­tem “will only help create a new Cold War and a new arms race that would eventually spread through­out Europe and beyond.” Missile interceptors in Poland would almost certainly prompt Rus­sia to build new offensive nuclear weapons, said Bruce Gagnon, co­ordinator of the Global Network.

For Global Network members, there’s a growing sense of unease about the people Obama has picked to be his top national secu­rity aides, he said.

Gagnon said Robert Gates, Oba­ma’s pick for defense secretary, is worrisome because he comes from the Bush administration, which conceived of and has been promot­ing the missile defense system.

Obama’s national security advis­er, retired Marine Corps Gen. James Jones, is a former NATO chief. On Dec. 3, NATO issued a unanimous statement backing deployment of missile interceptors in Poland and the radar in the Czech Republic.

“What’s Jones going to be advis­ ing Obama” on missile defense? Gagnon asked.

And Sen. Hillary Clinton, Obama’s choice to be secretary of state, “is a hawk,” he said.

“It’s a real kicker” that newly elected Democrat Obama is “ap­pointing conservatives” as his top military and foreign policy advisers, Gagnon said.

McNamara said Obama himself “has successfully and probably de­liberately provided enough ambi­guity” about his position on Euro­pean missile defense that he could go either way on it.

Obama’s position has been that he supports missile defense, but won’t support deploying systems until they have been shown to work.

 Decision May Be Years Away

Obama should stick to that posi­tion, said Daryl Kimball, director of the Arms Control Association. “This is not a decision the Obama admin­istration needs to make in 2009 or probably in 2010,” he said.

The missiles to be placed in Poland have not been built yet, and the threat they are intended to counter — long-range Iranian mis­siles — does not exist and probably won’t until 2015, he said.

And there are other hurdles. Half of the Czech parliament has not yet approved the radar site installation, Kimball said. And “plunging ahead with a controversial program pur­sued by the predecessor adminis­tration” will complicate other for­eign policy matters that Obama must confront, including improving relations with Russia, and begin­ning diplomacy with Iran, he said.

“Frankly, Obama has much bigger fish to fry,” said Andrew Grotto, a senior national security analyst at the Center for American Progress.

But even if he wanted to move forward with the site, restrictions imposed by Congress last year would slow the process.

Lawmakers said construction money cannot be spent until the Polish and Czech governments - including parliaments - have ap­proved the project.

And money to buy and deploy the missiles cannot be spent until the U.S. defense secretary certifies that the interceptor missiles have “demonstrated a high probability of accomplishing [their] mission in an operationally effective manner.” “That pushes the decision out at least a couple of years,” Grotto said.

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