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A Pole Apart
Investors.com ^ | April 12, 2010 | INVESTORS BUSINESS DAILY Staff

Posted on 04/12/2010 4:52:18 PM PDT by Kaslin


An ally who feared U.S. indifference.

Tragedy In Smolensk: Lech Kaczynski was a Polish patriot and a friend of the West who believed in the defense of freedom and democracy. We don't have many friends like him, and we treated him shabbily.

Numerologists might note the number 70 figured prominently in both the life and death of Poland's president. Kaczynski, 60, his wife Maria, an economist, and 95 others who died Saturday on their way to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the massacre of 22,000 Polish prisoners in the Katyn Forest in western Russia in 1940 by Stalin's secret police.

Last September, Kaczynski told Fox News that he felt it was an "unfortunate coincidence" when President Obama announced that he was abandoning the Bush missile defense plan on Sept. 17, the 70th anniversary of the day the Soviet Union invaded in 1939.

In a post-election phone call, Obama had made a courtesy call to Kaczynski. In a Polish press statement about the call, Kaczynski is reported to have been told by Obama "that the missile defense project would continue." It did not.

This was a slap in the face of a man who was committed to the plan even if it meant offending a Russia that both militarily and economically could do Poland harm. Kaczynski had been a fervent backer of Bush plans to deploy 10 ground-based interceptors on Polish soil, if for slightly different reasons.

He told Newsweek's Andrew Nagorski in a Sept. 27, 2008, interview: "I'm a proponent of this (missile shield) not because I believe Iran will launch a nuclear attack ... (but because) it defends Poland by ensuring that Americans do not become indifferent to any attempts to include Poland in Russia's sphere of influence."

(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; Russia
KEYWORDS: easterneurope; europe; gdansk; kaczynski; katyn; katynforest; lechkaczynski; lechwalesa; missiledefense; missilesheild; obama; poland; russia; stalin; ukraine; walesa

1 posted on 04/12/2010 4:52:18 PM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin
One thing is certain, though: America has lost a friend.

Thanks to the p o s who resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave

2 posted on 04/12/2010 5:01:12 PM PDT by Kaslin (Acronym for OBAMA: One Big Ass Mistake America)
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To: Kaslin

Was replaced by “Tusk” aka “little horn”?


3 posted on 04/12/2010 5:47:58 PM PDT by bsf2009
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To: Kaslin

In the context of all that’s going on politically, it’s hard to imagine that that airplane crashed by pure accident.


4 posted on 04/13/2010 5:16:55 AM PDT by RoadTest (Religion is a substitute for the relationship God wants with you.)
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To: RoadTest

Why wouldn’t it be? The weather conditions were bad. Also it was reported that it was pilot’s error and that the pilot tried to land at the airport, despite warnings that he should land on another airport because of the weather. It was also reported that the Polish President told him to land


5 posted on 04/13/2010 5:22:38 AM PDT by Kaslin (Acronym for OBAMA: One Big Ass Mistake America)
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To: Reptilefreak

Poland ping


6 posted on 04/13/2010 6:38:18 AM PDT by Tax-chick (There's a perfectly good island somewhere.)
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To: Kaslin

It matters to me who did the reporting.


7 posted on 04/13/2010 2:19:48 PM PDT by RoadTest (Religion is a substitute for the relationship God wants with you.)
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