The Poles are revealing the real motivation behind the American defense shield in Europe.  The Poles said, with the Russian actions in Georgia, they are more supportive of a missile shield. This contradicts the premise behind the American President's deployment: That it would "not" threaten Russia.

American Provocations Continue Despite Russian Military Action

Russia interprets the NATO reactions, and continued plans to deploy the missile shield as one of arrogance. In the Russian view, despite Russian military force in Georgia, NATO does not seem responsive to Russian security concerns.

The Americans and NATO are not looking at the Russian action in Georgia through the Russian lens:

The Russians view the American President as a threat to Russia.

The Russians view the American-led missile shield as a direct assault on Russia.

Russia was surprised Georgia, NATO, and the United States did not seriously consider the Russian concerns and capabilities in Georgia.  Despite the Russian military action, Russians are more confused why the Americans are keen on still provoking Russia by expanding the missile shield.

Missile Shield Will Not Defend NATO Conventional Forces

A missile shield will take time. The missile shield will not address Russian conventional forces.  NATO's conventional forces have poorly performed in Afghanistan.

Russia views Georgia as a NATO proxy. Russian military forces believe they demonstrated the flaws with some of the NATO-allied command and control centers.

Pole Support For Missile Shield Stokes Russian Fears

Russia is worried there will be other Georgian-like hostrile action along her Eastern European border. If this occurs and NATO allies repeat what Georgia did, there is the risk Russia will use military force to intervene and defend the ethnic minorities in the former Eastern Block.

Continued border incursions by Georgia's allies in NATO will likely precipitate Russian defensive moves along her border with NATO.

Russia feels vulnerable because a missile shield would ensure NATO could launch missiles on Russia, and a Russian nuclear response would be thwarted. Russia is not happy NATO can pre-emptively neutralized Russia's nuclear deterrent.

Poland is confirming Russia's fears, prompting, in part, it's action in Georgia: Fears that the missile shield would be pointed at Russia, and support an American first strike on Russia.

Russian Pre-emption Against NATO

Russia understands that NATO has been planning a response to the Russian invasion of Georgia. Rather than wait for NATO to qualify its interactions with Russia, Russia pre-empted the NATO plan and cut all ties with NATO.

Russia waited to pre-emptively cut ties to ensure NATO leaders wasted time, and shows Russia can neutralize  and isolate NATO's leadership.  By cutting ties with NATO, Russia ensures NATO must use action, not words, to reassure Russia.

Debating the Security Language

The Russians are following the American model: Debating language for American interests, then selectively parsing the language to support Russian interests.

Russia views the French proposal as unacceptable, and offered another version.

Growing Risk of Central Asian Conventional Warfare

Russia views NATO conventional forces as vulnerable, and that NATO is not responsive to Russian military forces or security concerns.  Russia feels emboldened to orchestrate other reckless NATO military responses, and justify Russian military action against what Russia views as disloyal former USSR allies.

We expect Russia to feel military justified in repeating the same military efforts in Georgia, but against other former Eastern Block nations now part of NATO. We expect Russia to orchestrate a NATO provocation to justify a ruse Russian invasion of Eastern Europe. NATO is not militarily prepared to defend Europe against this foreseeable Russian defensive move.

The goal of Russian military action in Eastern Europe is not to immediately solidify gains in Europe, but to distract American and NATO power from Central Asia, the real Russian objective.

One motivation behind Russian military action is to discredit American military cooperation with former-USSR republics. We would not be surprised if, within the next 18 months, Russian ground combat units have successfully repeated defensive moves along Central Asia in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, new American allies in its war on terrorism. This will compound NATO's problems in Afghanistan, complicating American transport and theater support for intelligence gathering.

It is possible, but less likely, the Russians will use combat forces in Lithuania, Estonia, and Poland to safeguard Russian minorities. If, as expected, NATO continues to bungle it's responses to Russian military efforts in Central Asia, Europe's new Cold War may warm substantially.