Remember that we have the coalition of the "willing" or the "bought", depending on your point of view, I guess...well, after the Spanish declared their Independence from the 1600 Crew "coalition", guess who was next to express, well, shall we say...'rethinking'?
President Aleksander Kwasniewski, a key U.S. ally, said today that Poland was "misled" about whether Saddam Hussein's regime had weapons of mass destruction and was considering withdrawing troops from Iraq several months early.
The remarks came as polls show about half of Poles are opposed to involvement in Iraq and after deadly bombings in Madrid - possibly by al-Qaida in retaliation for Spain's alliance with the United States - triggered fears of a terror attack on Polish soil.
Kwasniewski's comments were the first by a Polish leader to raise doubts about the intelligence behind the decision for going to war and the latest signs of a weakening of support for the war among coalition members. He tempered them by stressing that Poland is not about to abandon its mission in Iraq, and said Iraq was a better place without Saddam.
And was one of the things that Preznit Congenital Liar talked to the Poles about way back when he was putting up the "coalition of the too poor or fascist to resist"? Visas for Polish family members of US Citizens of Polish ancestry perhaps...something Preznit Selective Memory apparently forgot about, and was chided very publically for by Polish President Kwasniewski during a state visit in January.
In an unusually frank Oval Office exchange between Iraq war allies, Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski on Tuesday publicly challenged President Bush to relax stringent travel curbs on Polish citizens.
...
"We're working with the president on this very delicate issue," Bush said as a typical exchange of Oval Office pleasantries in front of a crackling fire turned into a televised airing of Polish grievances in an otherwise warm relationship.
The Polish leader agreed to work with Bush, but insisted: "I would like to deliver this idea to you and to our friends: The future of the world is without visa, not with visa. That should be our goal."
"Listen, let me just take a step back on this very important issue," Bush told Kwasniewski. "We value our friendship with Poland. Poland is our great friend. There are thousands of Polish Americans who..."
"Millions," the Polish president broke in with a smile.
Clearly a bit taken aback, Bush continued: "Millions, excuse me? I just don't want to overstate the case here."
Yeah, and there are actual black folks in Brazil. What a simpleton. I have a feeling that more than one "foreign leader" has expressed to someone somewhere "I can't wait for this idiot to be gone".
posted by Jo Fish on 03.19.04 at 12:56 AM
Comments:
Yeah, those Stinky Poles are good enough to fight and die for America, but not quite good enough to actually visit our country. Shameful!
posted by: Brenda Helverson on 03.19.04 at 02:34 AM [permalink]
We expect other countries to click their heels and salute. It’s painfully simple. Kerry should not have asked Mr. Zapatero to keep Spanish troops in Iraq. I’m a US citizen of Spanish ancestry who fought in Vietnam and gave money and time to Howard Dean. I hate war and U.S. Imperialism. Saddam was bad, but I find the talk about democracy hollow. My Muslim friends deeply resent American evangelical people in Iraq. Less than 20% of Spaniards supported the war- they didn’t want to waste money or Spanish blood backing arrogant Bush policies. Then Aznar tried to shift the blame for the Madrid bombing onto ETA even after finding a van with detonators and verses from the Quran. Zapatero is not Chamberlain. He campaigned on a pledge to pull Spanish troops out of Iraq before the bombing.
Iraq has been a pyrrhic victory, a financial disaster. It cost $105 billion in direct expenses and this is only the beginning. Stupid US plans to finance the occupation with Iraqi oil have evaporated. Congress estimates the overall cost of "pacifying" and "rebuilding" Iraq for fiscal 2003 and 2004 at about $200 billion. The human cost of the war is large. Lunaville.org indicates U.S. losses of 575 dead, and about 7,000 casualties from combat, accidents and illnesses. The suicide rate is higher than it was in Nam. Coalition forces have killed about 10,000 Iraqi civilians. No matter who wins the November election, American troops must remain to guard the oil fields and prevent civil war or Islamist domination. The garrison will face a guerrilla war with continuing American casualties, which will increasingly brutalize and corrupt us. This is our tar baby, a US West Bank, or Lebanon. Iraq is now a terrorism generator, like Afghanistan in the 1980s, a rallying point to fight foreign occupation, and defend Muslim honor as the Wahabbis see it. Bush and Rumsfeld are creating new enemies faster than they kill or neutralize them. Blowback is just getting started. US Christian missionaries in Iraq make the situation worse.
I don’t say that Kerry must be a pacifist. I simply say that if Kerry doesn’t respect European peoples who were dragged unwillingly into the Iraqi war, he is total dead meat. I and my antiwar friends won’t vote for him, won’t give him a dime, and won’t lift finger one to help. Remember this because we are people who really work instead of hanging around Washington.
posted by: governor on 03.19.04 at 06:18 PM [permalink]
Millions is more correct. My grandfather was from Poland, having moved to America as a young man. The old neighborhood they lived in was almost all Polish with a few Czechs, Slovaks and Lithuanians. On a day in August every year, hundreds gather for a family reunion with a feast of food, free-flowing beer and a mass led by our own family priest. I won't mention where or when this big party is held as maybe now that Bush knows there aren't just a few thousand Polish-Americans in America, he might want to track us. General Motors employed many Polish in just Michigan alone. In the foundry where my dad works, there is a black guy that is called "the black Pollack" because he learned Polish to fit in with the crowd when he first started at GM.
Don't worry about Bashcroft profiling Poles, every time Bush hears it he thinks his Poll numbers are less. See his latest approval numbers said he had thousands of supporters, so when he heard of Poles in America the numbers were the freudian slip.
Maybe we can get Janikowski to kick a Bush bobble-head for a placekick attempt in preseason games this year.
Bush said there were thousands eh? This man has created a new category for dumb. And to think his dad raised such an idiot and was President. He probably called Quayle "son" in meetings because their dural matter density matches.
Or it could be that labor unions led to freedom in Poland with Solidarity, and Bush leaguers want to think of unions as being only a few thousand strong....
posted by: Mr.Murder on 03.20.04 at 05:26 AM [permalink]
The Pope is another pollack against Bush and Polish Americans aren't exactly his base either. They vote democratic and support labor unions like the UAW so maybe he does want to forget about them.
