This is a decision Poland will regret because American military bases tend to have a corrupting influence on the local population, and once established, are almost impossible to evict. This base will also serve as an opportunity for bribing corrupt Polish politicians with service contracts - just as occurred at US air base in Kyrgyzstan. The Polish people will regret this decision when they realize that Poland is slowly being turned into a vassal state of the US Pentagon - but, by that time it will be too late to change the fate of Poland.

From what I know Kihnu amercian bases are usually beneficial for local business. There is no risk that US soldiers will try to influence local policians also - local political system is not the same as in Kyrgystan. Poland will not turn into vassal state because connection between Poland and US is mostly marginal - from economy to politics. US will have no need to induce press on Poland - eastern border of NATO is one of the safest places in the whole world, and both Poland and Russia decided to introduce new stand for each other.

from Poland, I hope your optimistic view of the American missile base is correct. However, I believe, that you are missing the bigger picture of the American venue for Poland. America has nothing to gain from just putting a Patriot missile base in Poland. America, however, is interested in gaining access to means of exerting pressure on Poland from within and projecting power into the center of Eastern Europe. This base is just the beginning of a large influx of Americans into Poland - to the detriment of the Polish people. American policy makers don't give a damn about the Polish people, they just look at the geographic location of Poland with an eye on exerting pressure both on Germany and Russia. Again, I hope you are right. We will find out in a few years.

I guess following this logic, the Poles who also have a bitter history of meddling in Russian affairs would have no objection if the Russians shipped a contingent of soldiers to maintain some S300s on Cuba.

No Larry most wouldn`t ;D - most ironic is that majority of Poles are anti-american, be we know that from both evils American is not as bad as Russian one (which we know better). Right now this could change from the recent realtions, and the disonance between voters and current ruling party will grow. Right now with the exception of extreme right-wing most politicians agree to revitalize realtions with Russia. USA is weakening down to the level they can`t impose their stance on any non-banana republic country, and that is a fact. In 90s USA could everything they wanted in whole sub-continents area - now Obama has difficulty to deal with micro-entities like North Korea About S-300 - Poland wouldn`t take Patriot batteries if Russia would sold S-300 batteries to Poland in 2002 - when we politely asked for them. There are no other systems with similar capabilities (chinese HQ and french Aster were not available at that time). So