Posted on 07/29/2008 2:23:29 PM PDT by forkinsocket
Not so long ago, Poland was said to be America's Trojan horse in Europe and its 51st state. Indeed, America was our shield and our unattainable ideal. Did we suddenly stop liking it? Did the American dream recede in the minds of the Poles?
Studies of the Polish public's favorable attitudes toward foreign countries show that America has lost 20 percentage points over the last four years. It is not fully clear when this happened, but let us recall two warning bells. In October 2006, [Foreign Minister] Radoslaw Sikorski, who was then defense minister in the Law and Justice [PiS] cabinet, wrote two surprising comments on a confidential memo about a U.S. diplomat's visit to the prime minister's chancellery. One – "we can do without it" – referred to a proposal related to the missile defense shield. The other – "traditionally cheeky" – referred to a person who represented Washington. These notes, even if they were made in self-defense as an alibi for the opinion of "the biggest American" in our [ruling] establishment, signaled that Warsaw's love of Washington was no longer passionate.
Shortly after that, during an international seminar in Warsaw, Sikorski made the audience realize the shocking proportion between U.S. assistance and European support for Poland: $30 million from the United States and 90 billion (not million) euros (not dollars) from the EU. This comparison may have been stretched a little because it does not refer to the same things, but it does put the previous irritating question of whether Poland is more attached to America or to Europe in a different light. (Do you remember it? It was said to be as problematic as the question of who we love more, mom or dad.)
(Excerpt) Read more at tol.cz ...
Guess the server can’t handle more than two connections. I’ll try again later.
I’m far more concerned about the condition of America than about what the Euroweenies think of us.
Well, I wonder if we'll pull it out of the fire when it becomes Eurabia?
Kiss your Kielbasi good-bye.
Can’t get too worked up about it. The Poles are unhappy because they’re not getting enough freebies from Uncle Sam. They have now regained their independence from the Russians, thanks to American steadfastness during the Cold War. Now they’re getting a serious case of “What of you done for me lately?” I think there’s a number of countries that see dollar signs and think they’ve won a meal ticket with Uncle Sam, every time they’re liberated. Relatively speaking, the Poles are good sports, though. They’ve been free about two decades. Afghans and Iraqis were only liberated a few years ago, and they’re already complaining about us.
Buh-Bye now - next time you get your ass toasted we’ll send you a get-well card. ;o)
You're slipping. =;^)
The Polish people by and large still have great respect for America, so I take reports like this with a grain of salt.
If you have to buy your friends, what kind of “friends” are they?
Who’s going to send us money so we can love them?
“a get-well card”
Pretty much all the help they got from FDR. Although, I must say that Ronnie R. sure helped them out in the 80’s.
The Poles are our best friends in that neck of the woods. We should extend them every reasonable assistance.
“Poland is a place where great armies jostle one another” -Frederick the Great
Interesting how European “friendships” are based on money, but America bases our friendships on cultural standards and shared philosophy. The economic aspects of our friendships are secondary.
The Poles fought the Nazi’s on horseback long before the Brit’s or US got involved in the late great War. It would be a mistake to underestimate the resolve or bravery of the Poles.
Forget it, people. Don’t believe it.
TOL states this report brought to you by “BBC Monitoring.”
Remember, now, BBC, or its predecessor, didn’t like the Declaration of Indepedence either.
BBC sits out there and does Marxist farts and tells you it’s roses blooming in summer.
How soon they forget. Hitler took Poland in a matter of days. They were slaves to the Russkies for decades. The Poles should be careful who they lay down with as they could come up with fleas.
Actually, it’s worse than that, the US under FDR and to a lesser extent, Britain, totally sold out the Poles in world war two. I say the British to a lesser extent, because Churchill did at least attempt to press FDR for a more robust and aggressive approach to the Soviets, but FDR could not be persuaded that Stalin was anything other than a stand up guy. But even Britain demonstrated hypocrisy by allowing Poland to fall under Communist tyranny when the reason they went to war in the first place was to liberate them from the Nazis.
That aside, a lot of people here seem to think that the relationship between Europe and America is an irrelevance and that America doesn’t need Europe and vice versa. This is an unfortunate point of view to take, considering that China, India and Russia are all forming closer relations with each other and are poised collectively, to seriously challenge western supremacy on the world stage in the next couple of decades, which will strengthen the hand of authoritarianism and weaken the cause for freedom if we don’t rise to it. The best hope for the 21st century is for Europe, the US and the British Commonwealth dominions to remain closely linked...
Did any of you read the whole article?
Two last sentences say: American leadership in the world is needed. The Poles know about it and will support it as Europeans, even though their attitude is now more critical than it was previously.
Any additional comments needed?
And about those damn 30 millions - we don’t want American billions because “we’re your friends so give us money”. But if the shield is to be placed in Poland it must be protected, doesn’t it? Polish army is not as modern as yours, we just asked about some help to improve it a little. Frankly speaking, America spends billions for the help for other - even hostile - countries, so a little (yes, little - we don’t want billions!) help for a friend would be appreciated.
But even without it Poland will be always close to America.
Tell me just why the USA should give financial assistance to other countries that, supposedly, are able to take care of themselves?
Buying things from another country I can see. Products, raw material, intellectual property, etc I can see paying good money for.
But why should the USA just give money to another country?
You say it's to upgrade the military.
Why should the USA pay to upgrade Poland's military?
Is Poland in danger of being invaded by some country?
Doesn't Poland have treaties with other countries that have reciprocal defense sections?
I mean c'mon, when is enough enough, or even too much?
Capitalism is not in the business of humanitarianism, it's to make money and there is nothing wrong about admitting that. The Church can handle the rest.
Example:
Standard Oil sold oil to the Nazi machine as it was rolling through Poland.
We didn't go to war in 1941 to save the Jews. We went to war because we were attacked by Japan. In fact, we sent back the St. Luis.
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