Poland recently asked the Bush administration to petition congress to change the visa rule for Poles to match the rules for other EU countries and Bush ignored them. Yet just after that he was in South America pleading with the leaders down there who won't support his war on terror. Bush has chosen to ignore Poland who supported him and sucks up to the South Americans who scoff at him. You figure it out. I can't.
What angers Poles most, however, is a four-letter word: visa. The U.S. Embassy in Warsaw charges Poles $100 per visa application whether the document to travel to America is granted or not.
Then there's the prospect of fingerprinting and mug shots to meet new security regulations. Many Poles consider all this a bewildering slap to their dignity, especially given that millions of Americans come from Polish stock.
"We put a lot into the Iraq war," said Karol Domzala, a student at Warsaw University. "But there's still this visa embarrassment. We're one of the U.S.' best allies, but we have to line up and feel like second-class citizens. The Cold War is over, but I think America still looks at us like we're those poor people in the east."
Despite perceived slights, Poland cradles a deep affinity for the United States. It is the only "red state" in Europe. Poles favored President Bush over Sen. John F. Kerry in the last election, and, perhaps because of their strong Catholicism, they prefer a world of religion-driven moral clarity. Warsaw and Washington often gaze through the same prism, and their strategic motives, from dealing with Ukraine to fighting violent extremists, frequently overlap.