'Polska Walczaca'
Posted on 09/01/2003 2:22:39 PM PDT by blam
US cancels handover of Najaf to Polish troops
By Daniel Howden in Warsaw
02 September 2003
US forces have cancelled a planned withdrawal from the troubled Iraqi city of Najaf on the eve of its handover to Polish commanders.
Defence ministry sources in Warsaw confirmed that the city, 100 miles south of Baghdad, will remain under US command in the aftermath of the car bomb attack on Friday that left more than 100 dead.
America's decision not to hand over Najaf to Polish control will widen the split in public opinion about the war in one of America's staunchest European allies. Critics of the war have warned that a silent majority of Poles oppose military involvement in Iraq.
Thousands of Polish troops will lead a multinational brigade that is set to take over from American forces tomorrow, in the country's biggest military operation since the Second World War. General Andrzej Tyszkiewicz will oversee an area stretching from the border with Iran to the Saudi frontier, sandwiched between the US and British zones.
Poland's mission in Iraq underlines the country's new status as capital of what the US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld controversially calls "new Europe" - a bloc of eastern European countries which have forged close links with Washington after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
But the price for standing by Washington could be more than the present Polish administration can afford, according to Professor Tadeusz Iwinski, the Polish Prime Minister Leszek Miller's senior foreign policy adviser and the chairman of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe's migration and refugee committee. "The mission is the most risky decision this government has taken. If there are major casualties it could lead to a parliamentary rebellion, an erosion of the government's majority and an end to this administration."
The US decision to remain in Najaf and the attack on the supposedly neutral UN headquarters in Baghdad has left many concerned that poorly equipped Polish troops have been put in the firing line by their political leaders. Morale was not helped when standard issue pistols were recalled at the last minute because of persistent jamming and troops were forced to travel to Iraq with older weapons.
"Even top officials have reservations over whether our military can keep it together if things deteriorate further. But unless we try, we won't find out," a senior defence adviser said.
The gamble could set Warsaw at odds with its senior partners in Paris and Berlin in the run-up to Poland's formal accession to the European Union next spring. By far the largest new entrant to the 25-member bloc, with a population of 40 million, Poland is routinely referred to as Washington's "Trojan horse" in the EU.
After the difficulty it has encountered in finding allies prepared to commit troops to Iraq, the US is talking up Poland's international standing: "Nato's centre is shifting eastwards," the US ambassador to Nato, Nicholas Burns said during a recent visit. "Poland is emerging as one of the more powerful countries in Nato, it's a watershed."
But the flattering words followed intense political pressure that left many in Warsaw feeling there was little choice in following the White House to war. "You simply don't say 'No' to the Americans," said Bronislaw Komorowski, defence minister in the previous centre-right cabinet that oversaw Poland's entry to Nato in 1999.
In Warsaw there are clear signs of opposition to the policy. Opinion polls at the outbreak of hostilities showed two-thirds of Poles opposed the war and even after the fall of Saddam Hussein the figure remains at over 55 per cent.
For a country more accustomed to being occupied, the presence of Polish troops on potentially hostile foreign soil is deeply discomfiting. The abiding image of the Polish army has been that of the valiant cavalryman who charged the oncoming Panzers of Nazi Germany's invasion forces in 1939, matching his medieval lance against the might of mechanised armour. After the attack on Iraq, cartoonists in the Warsaw media satirically recast the cavalryman as a callow accomplice to the invaders, a tiny figure trotting alongside the American tanks overwhelming Saddam's army.
An series of corruption scandals has exhausted Mr Miller's government. He is the leader of the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) and now has an approval rating of just 16 per cent.
Andrzej Stasiuk a former anti-communist dissident, argues that the Warsaw administration will gain little from its Iraq gamble.
"It is easier to occupy Iraq than to admit, deep in our hearts, that we ourselves need stabilisation from Europe," he wrote in Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
Why?
Because they have generations of having had to deal with the Soviet.
They are no-nonsense, tough and they won't put up with Islamic perfidy.
Tia
I have a lot of respect for the Polish people. This article is from a liberal British newspaper, the Independent.
I have nothing but respect for the Poles. They have tasted tyranny, so they know what the stakes are. They are rapidly becoming some of our best allies on the Continent. Rumsfeld was right, the liberated Eastern European countries represent a new European thinking, these are the countries we should be courting. Not losers like the French and Germans.
Ax, werent the Poles helpful in getting one of our former neighbors out of Iraq?
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