20 September 2009

Dobra decyzja dla Polski?

I've had two concerns about the recent US decision to cancel the anti-missile defense system Bush planned to deploy in Poland and the Czech Republic to shield western Europe from Iranian nuclear missiles. One was the reaction of the Putin gangster regime to what it would likely interpret as a sign of American weakness; the other was how the Poles and Czechs would feel about the cancellation, after having stuck their necks out and risked Putin's wrath by sup-porting America's earlier decision to deploy the system. (Western Europe's actual security isn't an issue since there is no evidence that anti-missile defense systems work. Why Bush chose to ask the Poles and Czechs to put themselves on the line for something useless is a separate question.)

On the first concern, the jury is still out; on the second, based on this survey (whose accuracy I can't evaluate), the Polish people consider the cancellation to be a good decision for their country by 48% to 31%, a substantial although far from overwhelming plurality. Whatever the reason for that opinion, it at least implies that the people holding it don't feel betrayed.

I hope this reflects reality. The eastern European states liberated from the Soviet empire in 1989 and 1991 are among the most supportive allies the US has, and are a critical asset in dealing with the only other country on Earth which can legitimately be called a superpower. We need to make sure they never have reason to regret siding with us.

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

OMG, I thought I was hallucinating for a while, looking at the title of your post, Infidel. LOL!

Dobra decyzja. IMO. It would have been a waste of money and a needless provocation toward Russia (because the "defense against Iran" official justification has not made much sense, has it).

Poles were freaked out in the beginning when Bush proposed the missile shield and worried that it would make them a target for Russian revenge of one sort or another. Now they are bickering about the program being scrapped. The Polish people are hard to please, yanno. ;) On the other hand, they are pissed off by being constantly used like a ping-pong ball between empires -- and I can perfectly understand that.

Well, seems Poland loses either way in this game, but the project was a bad idea to begin with. IMO, of course.

20 September, 2009 11:57  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Infidel, the survey link takes me to a TimesOnline article on Iran. Is there a link on that page to the survey itself?

20 September, 2009 12:51  
Blogger Infidel753 said...

Elizabeth, I was hoping you'd comment on this one. It sounds as if a lot of the original Polish support for the system was a matter of going along with the US against their better judgment. If so, hopefully, not much harm done now.

Evidently I messed up the link first time. It's fixed now.

20 September, 2009 15:14  

Post a Comment

<< Home