Poland says needs UN mandate for Iraq peace force (Germany calls Poland the U.S.'s "Trojan Ass")

Reuters ^ | 5/6/03

[areafiftyone]

WASHINGTON, May 6 (Reuters) - Poland said on Tuesday it would need a U.N. Security Council mandate to take part in a proposed peacekeeping mission in Iraq.

"We believe that we need that kind of resolution. I understand that in days ahead there will be some initiatives opening the way to have such a resolution," Foreign Minister Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz said after talks with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Poland has proposed to the United States that its soldiers team up with German and Danish troops to keep the peace in one region of postwar Iraq, Polish officials said on Tuesday.

Defense Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski, in Washington for talks on setting up an Iraq "stabilization force," said such a unit could be based on a joint Polish-German-Danish NATO corps now stationed in northwestern Poland.

Cimoszewicz discussed the proposal with Powell and told reporters that Poland wanted as many European countries as possible to take part in the stabilization force.

"We would like to have as many European partners as possible to work together with us. To a great extent our common success will depend on that," he said.

"If that is done, we can start our task with all of the European potential partners, of course including Germans."

The minister said he was not singling out Germany as a partner and there were many other willing governments.

Powell said the United States had good discussions with Poland. He did not mention a possible U.N. resolution.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said later the United States had not ruled out any participants in a force for Iraq, despite disagreements with some Europeans.

"We're interested in finding out who wants to participate and then putting together the best possible configuration," the spokesman told a daily briefing.

A senior U.S. official said the United States had discussed the language of a U.N. resolution with some of its friends. "But we're not ready yet to go to the whole council," he said.

The United States wants a resolution that covers all aspects of post-war Iraq, including an end to the U.N. trade sanctions imposed when Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, as well as the stabilization force and reconstruction.

Berlin, an opponent of the U.S.-led war that toppled Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, was surprised by the Polish proposal but Defense Minister Peter Struck would discuss it with European colleagues, his spokesman said in Berlin.

German newspapers have been blunter, with one dubbing Poland America's "Trojan ass" and another accusing Warsaw of supplying the United States with mercenaries.

[capydick]

Let's see who the final ass is when we start pulling our troops out of West Germany.

[Lee'sGhost]

Ooooooo. Looks like somebody hit Germany's nerve.

[Michael81Dus]

Folks, this article is ranting against my country, and I cannot confirm that any newspaper commented it that way ("Trojan Ass"). In fact, the papers also present the view of the German opposition, which urges the government to accept the plan.

[AdmSmith]

I do not think that we should count Germany out yet. Remember that Schröder won with just a few votes and that there is a strong opposition in the form of CDU/CSU and FDP that most probably would be in government if an election would be held today. Both are free market parties and more positive to US. I do not think that Germany would solve their home grown economic problems by sticking to the hair-dyer in charge.

However in France both the left and the right (Chirac) have the same agenda vis-à-vis US.

[Michael81Dus]

That´s exactly why we have reasonable hope to re-establish good and reliable relations between our both nations (or to be more concrete: governments), and why there´s a breach with France. Germany now has the problem that it cannot be the mediator between France and the US anymore.

[joesnuffy]

Time to pull the US taxpayer funded comrades personal welfare program OUT of Deutchland

[CROSSHIGHWAYMAN]

The Poles deserve to be on the winning team....especially against Germany.

[Numbers Guy]

German newspapers have been blunter, with one dubbing Poland America's "Trojan ass" and another accusing Warsaw of supplying the United States with mercenaries.

Poland's loyalty to the U.S. is because the U.S. stood by the Polish people in WW I (supporting post-war Polish independence), WW II, and the Cold War. Germany's record on respecting Polish sovereignty during those conflicts was a little less stellar.

[xJones]

That´s exactly why we have reasonable hope to re-establish good and reliable relations between our both nations (or to be more concrete: governments), and why there´s a breach with France.

Pardon, there is a breach between the French and German governments? If so, I hadn't heard of that.

[Pubbie]

I agree, the CDU is a good ProAmerican party and it's gaining strength in Germany because Schroder is screwing up the economy.

Also remember that Germany was a good ally during the Cold War so Germany can be put back in the fold when the CDU returns to power.

[Faraday]

Does this mean the proposed administrative plan for Iraq had not been vetted by Poland before the US went public with it? Newt is right, our State Department is at best inept.

[RJL]

German newspapers have been blunter, with one dubbing Poland America's "Trojan ass"

I read a good article yesterday, paraphrasing..."Schroeder wanted to prove he wasn't the junior partner to the US, in doing so he became the junior partner to France.

[RJL]

Pardon, there is a breach between the French and German governments? If so, I hadn't heard of that.

The fun is coming. France doesn't hide its ambition to be the world leader or the that they will stop at nothing to achieve this goal.

Once that realization really sinks in with Russia and Germany, that France demands that they be subservient to France, the fireworks will be grand!

[longjack]

Struck, the German defense minister, says Poland made the proposition of including Danish and German troops, but he didn't know about it. The headline of the article is that Struck is 'pissed off' about it.

"Spiegel"...Struck stinksauer über polnischen Vorstoß

I think this would mean the German Parliament would have to sign off on the deployment, creating a possible quarrel with the pacifist Greens.

On another note, an article yesterday said Struck, in a meeting with Rumsfeld, felt he could normalize relations with the US in 'about 5 minutes'. Struck said he would tell Rumsfeld 'we had a quarrel about iraq, it's over, time to move on. I don't need to show 'remorse' and I don't have to make any political gifts'.

"Spiegel"...In fünf Minuten zur Normalität

Cocky SOB, IMHO. I hope W tells him to stick it where the sun don't shine.

I looked around briefly for the 'Trojan Ass' quote. It's most likely "Trojaner Esel' (Trojan Donkey), a play on words on Trojan Horse. That sounds like something 'Bild' would do.

longjack

[Centurion2000]

German newspapers have been blunter, with one dubbing Poland America's "Trojan ass" and another accusing Warsaw of supplying the United States with mercenaries.

I wonder if Poland still holds grudges against the Germans for the crap they've pulled in the last several hundred years with them.

If we move our troops into Poland instead of Germany the germans had best be on their best behavior.

[johnb838]

I don't understand this at all. If true it sounds like the communists in the state department have sold us down the river again. If anything, Poland sounds like it is Germany's trojan ass, if it means that Germany uses them as a vehicle to get into the country with military power that can be used to destroy evidence of treachery.

I suggest we say "Non! Non! Une mille fois Non!" If the Poles don't want the job get them out of there. They do NOT get to pick their successor.

No Axis-of-weasel in Iraq until the investigation is complete!

[LiteKeeper]

read later

[Pubbie]

"I hope W tells him to stick it where the sun don't shine.

I looked around briefly for the 'Trojan Ass' quote. It's most likely "Trojaner Esel' (Trojan Donkey), a play on words on Trojan Horse. That sounds like something 'Bild' would do."

I don't think we should make up with Schroder, however there is a very good chance he will step down before the end of the year, bringing in a conservative Pro-US Chancellor.

Should that happen i think we should make up with Germany if for no other reason than because it will completely Isolate France.

[Pubbie]

"I hope W tells him to stick it where the sun don't shine.

I looked around briefly for the 'Trojan Ass' quote. It's most likely "Trojaner Esel' (Trojan Donkey), a play on words on Trojan Horse. That sounds like something 'Bild' would do."

I don't think we should make up with Schroder, however there is a very good chance he will step down before the end of the year, bringing in a conservative Pro-US Chancellor.

Should that happen i think we should make up with Germany if for no other reason than because it will completely Isolate France.