Posted on 08/29/2014 8:38:19 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
WARSAW: Poland marks the 75th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II on Monday with one eye on Russia, which invaded it during the war and is now throwing its weight around in neighbouring Ukraine.
From the very first German shells fired at a Polish fort in Gdansk in the early hours of September 1, 1939, to the final days in 1945, Poland suffered some of the worst horrors of the war, chief among them the extermination of most of its Jewish population by the Nazis.
Nearly six million Poles, or about 17 percent of the population including around three million Jews died in the conflict.
Memories of the era have been bubbling to the surface since Russia seized Ukraine's Crimea peninsula in March, and a fierce conflict began in the country's east.
"To use military force against one's neighbours, to annex their territory, to prevent them from freely choosing their place in the world this provides a worrying reminder of the dark chapters of Europe's 20th-century history," Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski said in a newspaper opinion piece ahead of the anniversary.
Polish historian Andrzej Friszke meanwhile recalled the infamous Munich agreement that Britain and France signed with Nazi Germany in 1938, allowing it to annex swathes of Czechoslovakia in a failed bid to avert war.
"There is an attempt again to sacrifice some (people) to buy an illusion of peace for the rest," he told AFP.
(Excerpt) Read more at ndtv.com ...
Thanks for this thread.
I can see why they are on edge.
Absolutely. After all, Obama says the media exaggerates like everything's falling apart. Obama says everything's just peachy.
Tsar Putin is on the prowl...
Yup.
All Obama wants is “ Peace, Peace in our time.”
Pray it doesn't come to this. But the Poles will fight if it comes to it, you can count on that.
All Putin wants is Peace...Peace....Peace.....
A little piece of Poland
A little piece of France
A little piece of Portugal
And Austria perchance
A little slice of Turkey
And all that that entails
And then a piece of England Scotland
lreland and Wales
A little nip of Norway
A little spot of Greece
A little hunk of Hungary
Oh what a lovely feast
A little bite of Belgium
And now for some dessert
Armenia Albania
And Germany wouldn’t hurt
later
Obama only cares about “Fundamentally transforming the United States of America, PERIOD!”
Putin: the man who would be king CZAR. He will never reach what he wants. Russia just can't do it.
Putin WILL get old. He is 62 years old already: OVER THE HILL for Czar-ship. His honed, muscular body will get saggy, baggy and stooped. He will eventually SHRINK from his 5'7" to 5'2".
THEN we can sing:
♪♫♪♫♪♫ five foot two, eyes of blue, oh what those five feet can do!
Has anybody seen my czar? ♪♫♪♫♪♫
My guess is that the Russians would find screwing with Poland to be a lot like swallowing a porcupine. Just saying.
Yep.
I have been saying this week that no matter what we are or are not obligated to do, by agreement, for Ukraine, many others in “eastern” Europe are watching, not only the U.S. but “western” Europe and some are having second thoughts on just what “partnerships” with the west do and do not mean.
Rumsfield remark about “old” Europe and “new” Europe may be seen as more realistic today, as Russia’s true ambitions on the continent are now playing out.
The question for Poland and others in “the east” is whether or not their western partners’ economic detente and economic entanglement with Russia is or is not going to enhance the security of “eastern” Europe.
So, far while the jury is still out the jury looks skeptical.
I honestly have the belief that he is determined to recreate the Imperial Russian Empire with himself as Tsar. He only has to get rid of a few more obstacles and Maria Vladimirovna (the current most public claimant) and of course a few others and he may well try to pull it off.
It won’t stop him from trying; he has daughters, but he’s way too old to keep this up for long.
After what Stalin stood aside and let the Germans do to the inhabitants of Warsaw exactly seventy years ago, any Pole would have to be crazy to put any trust in Russia about anything. It was one of the most heinous crimes of omission in the history of the world.
It seems that history is gettign to repeat itself.
Since Poland is part of NATO, they have the United States and the other major powers beside them.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.