Obama Betrays Poland On 70th Anniversary Of Soviet Invasion

[vector7]

Sending the Wrong Message

by J. R. Nyquist

Weekly Column Published: 09.18.2009

Print President Barack Obama lost the support of many good people in Poland, the Czech Republic, the Baltic States and Ukraine. This may translate, as well, to a loss of support among Americans of Polish descent. Yesterday, 17 September, is the day on which Soviet dictator Josef Stalin joined Hitler in crushing and raping Poland 70 years ago.

And it was this day that the U.S. president decided to nix a missile defense system based in Poland and the Czech Republic, claiming that there were better ways of strengthening "America's defenses against ballistic missile attack."

The strategic significance of the decision is fourfold: (1) Appeasement in the wake of Russian threats against Poland; (2) appeasement in the wake of Russia's bullying of Ukraine (by Moscow's withdrawal of its ambassador to Kiev); (3) appeasement less than 14 months after Russia's invasion of Georgia; (4) appeasement as an expression of NATO policy, adopted by the new leadership in Washington.

If you want to understand the impact of the president's policy, Americans should consult their brothers in Ukraine and Poland. Ask them why Russian bullying should not be rewarded. It is realistic to say that roughly half the Ukrainian population was exterminated by the Russian communists between 1917 and 1950. When the Soviet armies invaded eastern Poland on 17 September 1939, a series of massacres took place that included the "liquidation" of at least 21,000 Polish army officers and the deportation of hundreds of thousands of Polish citizens to Soviet concentration camps. If anyone understands what these figures signify to millions of Poles and Ukrainians, then think of the six million Jewish victims of Hitler; only you'll have to triple the number of victims. (Here we are only discussing Moscow's Polish and Ukrainian victims, forgetting for the moment that Moscow probably butchered 60 million human beings, according to Prof. R.J. Rummel of the University of Hawaii. See Rummel's chart, figure 1.1, below.)




These innocent millions, cut down by Russia's security services, are matched by millions more enslaved and forced to work for starvation wages in Stalin's gulag. Their suffering testifies to a legacy unlike any the world has ever seen (with the exception of its imitators in Red China and Red Cambodia). From the Kremlin's point of view, these lives were necessary sacrifices in the construction of an unprecedented war machine, far larger than Hitler's. It was Stalin's objective to build tens of thousands of tanks and guns and war planes in order to overwhelm Europe. There was no profit in this project, only the promise of war and conquest. As Viktor Suvorov explains in his book on Stalin, titled The Chief Culprit, Poland was sacrificed because, according to Stalin, "History says that when any country wants to fight against another country, even one that it does not neighbor, it begins to seek out borders, through which it could reach the borders of the country it wants to attack." In other words, Stalin wanted an open path to the heart of Europe. And that is why Moscow forbids Poland and the Czech Republic from building a European missile defense today. By breaking up this joint defensive project with America, the Russians drive a wedge between Poland and the United States.

Under Vladimir Putin the Russian state is following Stalin's old program. The regime in Moscow makes its subjects afraid and prepares to extend this fear to all of Europe. Who dares to act or think or speak independently? People in Russia are careful not to upset the Kremlin bosses; and so is the American president. Perhaps someone should remind the White House of a boast published by Pravda before the Second World War: "Our country is great. The globe itself needs to rotate nine hours in order for our huge Soviet country to enter the new year of its victories. There will be a time when it will need for this not nine hours, but a whole twenty-four...."

Sentiments of this kind are brewing behind the high Kremlin walls even now. Russia's agents are busy undermining the sovereignty of Georgia, Ukraine, the Baltic States and Poland. Russia's agents have penetrated to the core of every important country. They have assassinated journalists and critics at home and abroad, using a variety of instruments. Last year an attempt was made to poison the offices of the chairman of the Ukrainian State Property Fund (FGI), Valentina Semenyuk, with mercury. This occurred after Semenyuk successfully stopped an attempt by Moscow's front men to take control of one of Ukraine's most important strategic assets (Odessa's port plant).

Readers should be reminded that Ukraine's President, Victor Yushchenko, was poisoned during the 2004 election campaign by security personnel who are now on Russian territory, shielded and protected. In a recent interview with Spiegel Online President Yushchenko explained that the investigation had been completed, that state prosecutors had interviewed over a thousand witnesses. "People who directly organized my poisoning have been in Moscow for the past four years," said the Ukrainian president. "I have appealed to the Russian president three times, and asked him to have them questioned by Ukrainian investigators at our embassy in Moscow."

Consider the message President Obama is sending when he appeases Russia on the anniversary of Russia's invasion of Poland. Imagine what the Poles and Ukrainians must be thinking. Can we trust Washington? Will the Americans betray us to the Russians?

Copyright © 2009 Jeffrey R. Nyquist
Global Analysis Archive

[vector7]

09/18/2009
SPIEGEL Interview with Former Polish President

'What Will America Expect in Return for Sacrificing Their Missile Shield?'

Some Poles are claiming their country has been sold out to Russia after plans for the American missile defense shield in Eastern Europe were scrapped. Former Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski talks to SPIEGEL about what the decision means for his country and why the US should pay more attention to the region.

SPIEGEL: Even though Warsaw and Prague signed a deal with the Bush administration, US President Barack Obama has called a halt to the construction of an American missile shield based in Poland and the Czech Republic. The Polish papers are calling it an American betrayal of Poland. Is it?

Aleksander Kwasniewski: No, and I am completely opposed to describing it as such. For myself and many others, it doesn't come as any surprise that the Americans have changed their plans. During Obama's election campaign, there had already been talk of how the security threat, the technological feasibility and the costs of the project needed to be reassessed. SPIEGEL: Is it not a political defeat for Poland, though? The country was hoping for more than a strategic military involvement. The stationing of Americans in Poland would have brought investment and increased the importance of the country to America's foreign policy.

Click on the image below to launch a SPIEGEL ONLINE Flash animation of the missile shield system as originally planned.



Kwasniewski: Of course there are a lot of disappointed people, particularly in the conservative camp of the former Polish prime minister, Jaroslaw Kaczynski. But I would warn them not to over-dramatize this decision from Washington. In terms of security, the Americans will come up with a different defense system, one that is more flexible and smarter. In political terms, what's important is that such a system should be better anchored within NATO structures. As members of that alliance this should be important to us.

SPIEGEL: In Poland people are saying things like the country has been sold out to Russia.

Kwasniewski: They shouldn't be saying things like that. What does that mean anyway, we have been sold? Our borders are secure, we are part of NATO and part of the European Union.

SPIEGEL: But Moscow is happy about the move.

Kwasniewski: Of course you could see Obama's decision as a triumph for the Russians. But you should not just judge this from a domestic perspective. The question now is: What will America expect in return for sacrificing their missile shield? If Moscow now moves to do more to stop Iran from arming itself with nuclear weapons, then that's useful for everyone's security. And if the price for doing without (the missile shield) was an easing of Georgia and Ukraine's path toward the West, then that isn't bad news either.

SPIEGEL: The former prime minister of the Czech Republic, Mirek Topolanek, is worried that this decision is just one more sign indicating that the entire region is losing its significance for Washington. Do you share his concerns?

Kwasniewski: I certainly do. Some time ago a group of other former heads of state, including (former Czech president) Vaclav Havel and myself, wrote an open letter talking about the danger of this. There is no denying that the Czech Republic and Poland have become less important. America's strategic interests lie elsewhere -- in the direction of the Pacific and in China's direction. In Europe the Americans care about the EU as a whole but not as much about the individual nations. The Americans say to themselves: Okay, it was only 20 years ago that these countries were fighting for their freedom and their security but these days they are no cause for concern. But I would disagree with that. Ukraine, Belarus, the countries in the Caucasus region -- you can't say that all the standards have been met there, that we should welcome these countries into the family of democratic nations or that we can all predict what the political future in those countries holds. That is why one of the most important tasks for European politicians is to make sure that this region remains uppermost in the minds of the Americans.

SPIEGEL: The Eastern Europeans have always tried hard to keep up a good relationship with the US. For instance, they aligned themselves with the Americans very early on during the Iraq war. At the time (former US Defense Secretary) Donald Rumsfeld spoke of an "old" Europe and a "new" Europe. Do you think the time has finally come when these divisions can be overcome?

Kwasniewski: I never found Rumsfeld's classification to be very useful. Poland has always been part of the old Europe. Today it is all about strengthening the European Union as a whole. We need to take a unified stand on issues of energy and security, especially when they pertain to relationships with America, with Russia and with China. The stronger Europe is, the better it is for us.

Interview conducted by Jan Puhl

[vector7]

September 21, 2009
Obama moves to bring Russia in from the cold

The Bush missile shield should never have been embarked upon.

THE date was not auspicious, but the announcement was made by a man who has repeatedly shown that he will not be bound by failed ways of thinking. Last Thursday, the 70th anniversary of Russia's invasion of Poland, President Barack Obama informed the Polish and Czech prime ministers that the US would not proceed with its planned missile defence shield, which would have been based in their countries. The news that this initiative of the Bush administration had been abandoned was greeted with dismay in Warsaw and Prague, celebration in Moscow, frosty silence in Tehran, and accusations by Republicans in Congress that the President is endangering US security. It is to be understood, however, not in terms of last week's anniversary but in connection with this coming Thursday's United Nations nuclear summit in New York, which Mr Obama will chair.

The Obama Administration, rightly, regards nuclear proliferation - especially the prospect that Iran may be developing nuclear weapons - as a greater global danger than the lingering possibility of conflict between the former Cold War rivals. In that context, the Bush plan for a missile shield amounted to a provocation to a country whose support the US will need if the nuclear summit is to result in an agreement aimed at checking proliferation, and especially if any nuclear ambitions held by Iran are to be restrained.

Under the shield plan, a chain of radar stations would have been built in the Czech Republic, supporting interceptor missiles based in Poland. Instead, the US will now deploy smaller, ship-based missiles intended to intercept short and medium-ranged missiles launched from Iran, and the radar complex is likely to be moved to Turkey or one of the Caucasian republics.

Mr Obama's Congressional critics are correct in describing this as a gamble, but it is one in which the odds are more favourable to the US than they would have been under the Bush plan, which contained its own risks. In retrospect, a case can be made that expanding NATO after the collapse of the Soviet Union to include Moscow's former Warsaw Pact allies did not serve the cause of European peace well. Russia felt threatened by the development, and that sense of threat has been grist to the mill of belligerent Russian nationalists such as Vladimir Putin. The enlarged NATO cannot now be easily dissolved; but the Bush administration's missile plan needlessly aggravated the tension, with the Kremlin threatening to revive the Cold War arms race.

Russia has made no offer of arms cuts in response to Mr Obama's announcement, as Congressional Republicans have also pointed out. But President Dmitry Medvedev said: ''We value the US President's responsible approach to implementing our agreements. I am ready to continue the dialogue.'' That is a very different tone to that adopted by Mr Medvedev's predecessor, Mr Putin, in his exchanges with George W. Bush.

Deterring Iran, the aim of Mr Obama's new strategy, was also the avowed aim of the Bush missile shield. Yet over time its supporters came to regard the shield in a different light: it indicated a refusal to be cowed by a resurgent Russia. For the American right, missile defence has had a special allure since President Ronald Reagan unveiled his Strategic Defence Initiative (SDI), dubbed ''Star Wars''. The Bush missile shield was more modest in scope than the SDI, but like it it was very expensive and technically dubious. Its strategic assumptions were continuous with those of the Reagan era, and by junking the shield Mr Obama has, in the eyes of his opponents, besmirched the Reagan legacy, too. The fact that Defence Secretary Robert Gates, a Republican, and the joint chiefs of staff all recommended the course Mr Obama has taken is unlikely to inhibit his increasingly shrill domestic critics from saying that he is not fit to be commander-in-chief.

Abandoning the missile shield is justifiable in money terms alone. The immediate question, however, is whether the decision will give Mr Obama the leverage he needs to secure Russian support for a tougher line on Iran. This week's nuclear summit will be followed a week later by a meeting between representatives of Iran and the inelegantly titled P5+1, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany. Iran is far more likely to be swayed by appeals for restraint if the P5+1 delivers them in a united voice. Mr Obama should find out this week if that is likely to happen.

[vector7]

This is double posted as it has it's own thread because the implications are serious to Poland.

Russia 'simulates' nuclear attack on Poland

Russia has provoked outrage in Poland by simulating an air and sea attack on the country during military exercises.

By Matthew Day in Warsaw
Published: 4:37PM GMT 01 Nov 2009

Comments 68 | Comment on this article



A Russian military tank in action in Georgia Photo: Getty Images

The armed forces are said to have carried out "war games" in which nuclear missiles were fired and troops practised an amphibious landing on the country's coast.

Documents obtained by Wprost, one of Poland's leading news magazines, said the exercise was carried out in conjunction with soldiers from Belarus.

Related Articles

• Russia to stage largest air force war games since Soviet times
• South Korea tells North Korea to retract threat against civilian flights
• Japanese alarm at rise in Russian military activity
• Dmitry Medvedev claims diplomatic victory for Russia
• Russian general says Poland a nuclear 'target'

The manoeuvres are thought to have been held in September and involved about 13,000 Russian and Belarusian troops.

Poland, which has strained relations with both countries, was cast as the "potential aggressor".

The documents state the exercises, code-named "West", were officially classified as "defensive" but many of the operations appeared to have an offensive nature.

The Russian air force practised using weapons from its nuclear arsenal, while in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, which neighbours Poland, Red Army forces stormed a "Polish" beach and attacked a gas pipeline.

The operation also involved the simulated suppression of an uprising by a national minority in Belarus – the country has a significant Polish population which has a strained relationship with authoritarian government of Belarus.

Karol Karski, an MP from Poland's Law and Justice, is to table parliamentary questions on Russia's war games and has protested to the European Commission.

His colleague, Marek Opiola MP, said: "It's an attempt to put us in our place. Don't forget all this happened on the 70th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland."

Ordinary Poles were outraged by news of the exercise and demanded a firm response fro the government.

One man, identified only as Ted, told Polskie Radio: "Russia has laid bare its real intentions with respect to Poland. Every Pole most now get of the off the fence and be counted as a patriot or a traitor."

Donald Tusk, Poland's prime minister, has tried to build a pragmatic relationship with the Kremlin despite widespread and vocal calls in Poland for him to cool ties with Moscow.

After spending 40 years under Soviet domination few in Poland trust Russia, and many Poles have become increasingly wary of a country they consider as possessing a neo-imperialistic agenda.

Bogdan Klich, Poland’s defence minister, said: “It is a demonstration of strength. We are monitoring the exercises to see what has been planned.

Wladyslaw Stasiak, chief of President Lech Kaczynski’s office, and a former head of Poland’s National Security Council, added: “We didn’t like the appearance of the exercises and the name harked back to the days of the Warsaw Pact.”

The Russian troop exercises will come as an unwelcome sight to the states nestling on Russia’s western border who have deep-rooted anxieties over any Russian show of strength.

With a resurgent Moscow now more willing to flex its muscles, Central and Eastern Europeans have warned of Russia adopting a neo-imperialistic attitude to an area of the world it still regards as its sphere of influence.

In July, the region’s most famed and influential political figures, including Lech Walesa and Vaclav Havel, wrote an open letter Barack Obama warning him that Russia “is back as a revisionist power pursuing a 19th-century agenda with 21st-century tactics and methods.”

Moscow and Minsk have insisted that Operation West was to help "ensure the strategic stability in the East European region".

[vector7]

Companion Thread:

• Russia 'simulates' nuclear attack on Poland
  

Polish foreign minister says country's alliance with US worthless

According to a transcript of recordings obtained by Wprost, Radislaw Sikorski said 'we gave the US a blow job'

• Share 1965

• Reuters in Warsaw
• The Guardian, Sunday 22 June 2014 12.00 EDT
• Jump to comments (635)

Sikorski has been an outspoken critic of the Kremlin and has strongly criticised Russian actions in Ukraine this year. Photograph: Olga Maltseva /AFP /Getty

A Polish news magazine said on Sunday it had obtained a secret recording of Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, in contention for a senior European Union job, saying that Poland's relationship with the United States was worthless.

The Wprost news magazine said the recording was of a private conversation earlier this year between Sikorski and Jacek Rostowski, a member of parliament with the ruling Civic Platform who until last year was finance minister.

The magazine did not say who recorded the conversation, or how it obtained the recording.

Aides to Sikorski and Rostowski said they had no immediate comment. A government spokeswoman said it was hard to form a view based on a few excerpts of a conversation, but there might be a comment later.

According to a transcript of excerpts of the conversation that was published by Wprost on its Internet site, Sikorski told Rostowski: "You know that the Polish-US alliance isn't worth anything."

"It is downright harmful, because it creates a false sense of security ... Complete bullshit. We'll get in conflict with the Germans, Russians and we'll think that everything is super, because we gave the Americans a blow job. Losers. Complete losers."

According to the transcript, Sikorski described Warsaw's attitude towards the United States using the Polish word "murzynskosc."

That derives from the word "murzyn," which denotes a dark-skinned person and someone who does the work for somebody else, according to the PWN Polish language dictionary.

The remarks were brief excerpts from a longer conversation between the two men, and it was not immediately clear if Sikorski had made comments elsewhere in the conversation that contradicted those excerpts.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk said last month that Sikorski would be a natural candidate for the job of the EU's top diplomat. The role is filled by Catherine Ashton, but may become vacant when a new European Commission is formed.

Asked by Reuters to comment on the transcript of Sikorski's conversation with Rostowski, foreign ministry spokesman Marcin Wojciechowski said: "We do not comment on media speculation ... Possible comments will be published only after the whole magazine is published."

Government spokeswoman Malgorzata Kidawa-Blonska said the government was waiting for publication of the full recordings before commenting.

"It's hard to relate to something which is just a few sentences taken out of a conversation. We'll comment probably on Monday or Tuesday after the government's sitting," she said.

An aide in Rostowski's parliamentary office said he would not comment "at least until he familiarizes himself with the whole conversation."

Wprost last week published secret recordings of conversations between two other senior officials, central bank chief Marek Belka and Interior Minister Bartlomiej Sienkiewicz.

According to a transcript, the two men discussed the central bank helping the government with the economy if it is facing election defeat, and ways of applying pressure on a businessman. Both man have said their words were taking out of context and that they did not break the law.

The recordings prompted calls from the opposition for the government to step down. A raid by prosecutors on the premises of Wprost magazine to try to seize as yet-unpublished tapes prompted protests over media freedoms.

Tusk said last week that calling an early election was an option if no other way could be found out of the crisis.