US Vice President Seeks to Smooth Feathers in 'New Europe'By Gregor Peter SchmitzSpiegelUS Vice President Joe Biden heads to Eastern Europe on Tuesday, the first such trip by a high-ranking Washington official since President Barack Obama scaled back the missile shield program in September. Many are concerned that the US is turning its back on the region.It's good to be the US vice president these days. Joe Biden gets to fill his days with such pleasant duties as speaking to Democratic campaigners in New Jersey, addressing a group of supporters in Pennsylvania and attending banquets with party allies. It seems that wherever he goes, President Barack Obama's deputy is greeted with applause.But this week is likely to be different. On Tuesday, Biden begins a four day visit to Eastern Europe, stopping at Poland, the Czech Republic and Romania, where he is not very popular. Poland and Czech Republic are particularly unimpressed by the Obama administration because the US president recently put the missile shield -- that had been promoted by his predecessor George W. Bush as a defence against Iranian midrange and long-range missiles -- on ice. Instead of the complex system involving long-range rockets envisioned by Bush, Obama wants a system that uses more conventional SM-3 rockets based on ships or in Turkey, the Balkans and perhaps also in Eastern Europe.It wasn't just the decision itself that angered the Poles and the Czechs as much as the way it was communicated. Obama first called his Eastern European counterparts in September via a phone call at around midnight European time -- after the first reports had appeared in the US media. The reaction in Poland was harsh. The Polish tabloid Fakt wrote "the US has sold us out to the Russians." Former Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek complained that Obama's decision demonstrated that the US "was no longer interested" in the region....(Remainder.)
