Posted on 04/30/2003 7:31:13 AM PDT by areafiftyone
THE US plans to divide Iraq into five administrative zones, one of which could be managed by Poland, the daily Rzeczpospolita said quoting a NATO source.
Under a proposal made by Washington to Warsaw, Polish companies would also take part in the reconstruction of Iraq, the conservative newspaper, one of Poland's two biggest dailies, said.
It said the United States was "ready to fully finance the participation of the Polish contingent in the stabilisation force" in Iraq and had asked Warsaw to send between 2000 and 4000 soldiers, while the Polish defence ministry "has in mind a figure of 1500".
It said Polish general Andrzej Tyszkiewicz, who was a senior Polish representative in NATO and the current number two in the Polish army, "was one of the serious candidates" to command the international units in Iraq.
Yesterday Polish Defence Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski said the US had indicated that it may be prepared to fund Poland sending troops to help secure peace in Iraq.
"We have received an initial positive response, but we are waiting for a definitive answer which will allow us to define the number of soldiers or members of the other peacekeeping services," he was quoted as saying by Polish public radio.
Great news if true. The Eastern Europeans have fresh experience in the dificulties of developing a democracy out of a totalitarian society.
So9
Yes, the current Polish government is run by ex-Communists, but they are much closer to the U.S. (by choice) than they were to the U.S.S.R (by force), and they stood with us strongly on Iraq and willingly took the heat from Russia, Germany, and France.
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