Dobry Dzien, Po Polsku -

Dobry Dzien, Po Polsku - Although most of the nations of Eastern Europe are openly backing the US as re Iraq, the support is as polychromatic as is the opposition in places like Germany (where a significant portion of the population supports us under certain conditions).

And that polarization is causing problems between the newly-freed nations and "Old Europe":

In Central and Eastern Europe, there's irritation in the countries about to join the European Union that they have not been invited to this Monday's emergency summit on Iraq. The mostly ex-communist candidate countries feel it is their openly expressed support for President George W. Bush on the Iraq issue that has made them unwelcome guests at the summit. In the meantime, police in Central European capitals are preparing for mass peace demonstrations this Saturday.

There's a deep reservoir of support for the US in most of Eastern Europe - in my experience (years of conversations with Russian, Ukranian, Belorussian and Polish emigres), many of them realize the debt they owe the US for their own freedom, as reflected in this bit here:

The most interesting Central European capital as far as turnout at Saturday's peace demonstration is concerned will be Warsaw. Poland has a large army and a deeply engrained military tradition; and the country has long been one of America's staunchest supporters, for a variety of reasons. Polish émigrés in the US (Chicago) have always seen to it that under communism, the plight of the Polish citizens was never forgotten – and that successive US governments followed the rise of the independent trade union Solidarnosc, and the arrival of democracy with special interest. In return, the Poles have always been aware of strong US feelings for their country.

As a result, Poland has always been the most outspoken pro-American country now about to join the European Union. Fashionable anti-American feelings have never taken root here. Even so, recent opinion polls show a majority of Poles oppose war against Iraq and 76 percent feel Polish soldiers should not take part in it.

It's interesting - some people from the left credit Germany and France's anti-war feelings to their experiences in World War II. So - what nation was more grievously mauled by the war than Poland?

Posted by Mitch at March 3, 2003 03:49 AM