(Prague, March28th) As the world knows our governments have proudly joined the “coalition of the killing”. After decades of Soviet slavery we were “liberated” only to become part of another empire: the U.S. When the Berlin wall fell, we did not need the Americans and where they anyway when we did need them back in 1945 and 1981? On our own and yes granted with a little help from the Pope and CIA cash and fax machines, Poland rid itself of its Soviet tyranny. We welcomed the American not as “liberators” as we did the Soviet troops in 1945 but as “partners for peace”. So I ask you where is the partnership and where is the peace and prosperity we were all promised? Over a decade later Poland has been reduced to the ignoble status of an American client state, which befits a banana republic in Central America more than a great European nation. We slavishly worship the White House just like we did the Politburo in the Kremlin during the cold war era. Warsaw and other central European states naively thought that our security needs would provide to us by NATO. And so we lobbied hard to join the organization seeking peace and stability.

Instead, we have gone to into two wars Serbia and now Iraq in the just five years. As for our glorious post communist past what is left of it? The shipyards where “Solidarity” was born have been shut down. Polish steel is rusting away thanks to U.S protectionist tariffs imposed on European metal exports by our hero President Bush and MacDonald’s are opening up in Gdansk old town as part of the relentless Gringo cultural invasion of the region. As for NATO, deprived of an enemy known as the “Evil Empire” of the East, it has gone into the “regime change” business. We are NATO’s newest partners in this perfidious joint venture known as toppling unfriendly tyrants who belong to the “axis of evil”. Our newest enemies are not the Soviet Commissars but Middle Eastern monsters who threaten us with weapons of mass destruction which are much worse as Washington wishes us to believe than the Soviets’ nuclear arsenal ever was... Instead of Socialism our pliant governments are busy exporting American democracy to the world while shutting their eyes and ears to those who protest this war. Raining down cruise missiles terrorizing the civilian populations, killing and maiming children and women may bring fast food and freedom to Iraq, but what do we get out this? Maybe some cheaper oil, construction contracts for Polish firms or a few garrison towns filled with G.Is kicked out of Germany. Is it worth being vilified in the Middle East, just the Americans and the Brits are for that? I recall as a reporter during the Gulf war I, while shopping in the Baghdad bazaar, Arabs greeted me in Polish, “jak se mas”, how are you? they asked smiling. Back then we central Europeans were busy building road and highways for Saddam Hussein.


Now theses same highways are lined up with Abrams tanks racing for the capital. Polish cavalry resisted the German tanks before Warsaw was bombed to the ground. Have we forgotten the human sacrifices that Poles made to resist the Nazi invader, are we surprised to witness the Iraqi’s determination to fight in this bloody war and resist as we once did the occupying forces? Bush’s blitzkrieg on Iraq may destroy Baghdad an other cities, but the resolve of the Iraqi people may turn to iron.

Furthermore Poland ‘s place is in Europe, yet its foreign policy has become completely aligned to the U.S. At one point Polish policy will have to make a choice. You are with Washtongon or with Brussels. We cannot have it both ways for much longer otherwise we risk alienating our American sponsors and our supporters for EU enlargement in Brussels. The Central European stance on Iraq, has split the “old” and “new” Europe into two opposing camps just as the EU was on the verge of creating a truly united Europe from Brussels to Budapest. Joining NATO in1998 a quid pro quo, agreed to actively seek the overthrow of the Castro regime and now we are busy with Saddam. Yesterday’s Soviet agents have found new jobs as American agents. Let’s leave the overthrowing of dictators to the CIA and the Pentagon and get on with the real task at hand and that is to prepare for EU membership. Let us start by mending the fences we tore up with Brussels, Berlin and Paris and then get out of this bloody war. Let the Americans “liberate” and then occupy Iraq just like the Soviet tanks “liberated” us with their troops in tanks in Prague Warsaw and Budapest from Nazi tyranny. Have we not learned the lessons of history? If not then we are bound to repeat the mistakes of the past and pay the price later.

Michael Werbowski, The author is a reporter- commentator on EU and NATO affairs who is based in Prague.