The Bush Administration’s plan was to install missiles in far eastern Poland, along the Russian border, and to build an advanced radar station in the Czech Republic. The plan sparked major protests among Czechs, and polls showed a strong majority opposed to the involvement, fearing it would make the nation a target in the event of a US-Russia war.

But the government remained steadfastly in favor of the plan, until President Obama revised the plan and announced a smaller, more southerly shield. Under his plan, the Czechs would play only a minor role, with an “early warning system” installed there.

Incredibly it was this, and not the massive domestic opposition, that ended Czech involvement, as Minister Vondra lashed the offer of the system as a “consolation prize.” Though the large numbers of protesters opposed to the nation’s involvement may feel relieved now, officials say they would be open to renewing their involvement if the US ponies up a larger role for them.

President Obama insists the new shield will provide actual defensive capabilities much sooner than the 2007 deal, which would have put a radar base in the Czech Republic and a handful of missiles in Poland at some point in the next decade.

Though the shield was opposed by a significant majority of voters in both Poland and the Czech Republic, their respective governments were outspoken in their support and will likely be irked by the plan’s abandonment. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, long unhappy with US plans to put missiles along his country’s western frontier, has praised the move.

Republican Congressman John Boehner angrily condemned the move, saying it proved that Obama was ignoring the threat posed by some of the world’s most dangerous regimes, and that it would ultimately “empower Russia”

The Obama Administration, and the Bush Administration before them, long maintained that despite being deployed far from Iran and right next to Russia’s exclave of Kaliningrad, the shield was a move against Iran and had nothing to do with Russia.

The new plan will be to deploy smaller missile defense batteries off-shore in the Mediterranean Sea. Eventually it is expected that those missiles will be moved to some location in the Balkans or Turkey.

Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek condemned the vote, declaring he “was ashamed for being Czech.” Only about 400 Czech soldiers serve in Afghanistan, and another 400 serve in Kosovo. With the mandate ended, the Czech government will have 60 days to bring its troops home, starting on January 1. Military Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Vlastimil Picek said the vote sends a “very bad signal for our partners.”

The Czech government’s ability to push through its agenda was seriously compromised by a major defeat in October elections, led primarily by popular opposition to the proposed US radar base in the nation. Topolanek’s ruling coalition has only 96 seats, while its primary opposition party has 97. The government was counting on the seven independent MPs to sway the vote in their favor.

Residents near the proposed site have been protesting its construction for months, and polls show the Czech people strongly against it, but the center-right government pressed on in spite of this. The government has insisted that the radar, part of a US missile defense system, would be a national security boon. The populace seems reluctant to make themselves a potential battleground in the growing tension between the US and Russia.

And now, with the leftist opposition gaining significantly in the recent election and the prospect of a new national election looming large, public opinion on the site will be increasingly hard to ignore. The ruling party expects to win the preliminary vote in the lower house, but the final vote, expected sometime in December, is too close to call at the moment.

Russia believes, rather, that the shield is aimed at their arsenal and while such a small site is in and of itself unlikely to significantly degrade Russia’s nuclear capabilities, it has provoked a strong negative response from them, a response which Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice described as “bizarre“.

This is far from the first time Russia has threatened a military response to the contentious shield. Last month General Anatoly Nogovitsyn warned that Poland’s decision to host the interceptor missile base is exposing it to a strike. Gen. Nogovitsyn added that the site would place Poland under the Russian military doctrine which allows the use of nuclear weapons against non-nuclear powers in the event that they provide aid to a nuclear power. Of the threat, Rice told reporters “the Russians are losing their credibility”.

The Czech government also agreed today to host a radar base related to the shield. The base is quite unpopular among Czech voters, and fears of making themselves a Russian target caused public protests in a village near the future site. General Solovtsov warned last year that the base would be added to the country’s list of targets in the event of a future war with the United States.