Poland Takes Up For Poland

January 12, 2008

President Bush's ill-conceived effort to build a missile shield suffered a setback recently, when the leaders of Poland's new center-right government expressed doubts about US plans to put 10 antimissile interceptors on Polish soil. Poland's course change may be discomfiting for Bush. In the long run, though, it will probably prove beneficial for American and European security, for US-Russian and Polish-Russian relations, and for bridging divisions between old and new Europe.

US officials have been promoting the interceptors as part of a system to prevent missile strikes from Iran, but Prime Minister Donald Tusk, whose government was elected in October, is clearly skeptical. Poland "definitely shouldn't hurry on the missile defense issue," he told the Polish edition of Newsweek. He justified his position in terms of protecting Polish national interests. "Remember," he said, "the shield is supposed to defend America, not Poland."

Foreign minister Radek Sikorski went further in distinguishing between Polish and US interests. "We feel no threat from Iran," he said. This blunt Polish demurral from the rationale for a crucial American policy is unprecedented. The previous government of right-wing nationalist Jaroslaw Kaczynski had backed the US missile defense scheme despite dire warnings from Russia and against a rising tide of public opinion.

By expressing reluctance to host the American interceptors on Polish soil, Tusk's government is acting as democratic governments are meant to act. Tusk and Sikorski are fulfilling the mandate they received from Polish voters.

Until recently, Poles could be counted on to give America the benefit of the doubt, particularly on a security issue that pitted their Cold War champion against Russia. But times change. As they become more and more integrated into the European Union, Poles more and more share the outlook of their fellow Europeans. And like other Europeans, much of the Polish public has been dismayed at the American invasion and occupation of Iraq, the treatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, and Bush's disdain for international treaties and organizations.

---EOE---

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