In light of yesterday's events, I'm going to recite a brief history of Modern Poland as a baseline to express genuine concern over President Obama's decision to forgo prior missile defense agreements with Poland and the Czech Republic.
Poland, has a storied history as a great Medieval country that tragically ended in 1795 when the Kingdoms of Russia,Prussia, and Austria divided up the remains and annexed the country for themselves. Of all these, Austria is the most notable, because it was in 1683 that Polish King Jan Sobieski relieved the Austrian capital of Vienna from an Ottoman army that was breaching its walls. He came to the aid of a sometimes enemy and spared them occupation and annihilation under the Turks. Austria would never repay the favor.
At the end of World War I and the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, Poland was recreated as a nation. A nearly forgotten chapter in Polish history is the war fought with Lenin's Russia between 1918-1921 just as Poland was in rebirth. For nearly two weeks in August 1920, The Poles fought Russian troops advancing on their capital Warsaw and delivered a crushing defeat to the new Bolshevik army. The rest of the world caught in a "red scare" hysteria breathed a sigh of relief as any territorial ambition by the new Soviet Union were checked by Pilsudski's Polish Army. Once again the West, as at Vienna was spared an invasion, this time by an ideologically driven Russian Army.
The new Polish nation, between the World Wars secured defensive alliances with Great Britain and France. They were guaranteed that both great nations would come to their defense if attacked. They were wrong. On September 1st, 1939, Adolph Hitler unleashed his "Blitzkrieg" for the first time to an astonished world. France and Great Britain declared war to honor their pact with Poland, but decided to hide behind France's Maginot Line and offered no immediate aid to their Polish allies. As Poland fought vainly but valiantly against the Nazi war machine, they were met with more duplicity when Stalin's Russia invaded on September 17th 1939. Stalin and Hitler, the ultimate Fascist and Communist had agreed to once again divide and partition Poland.
Poland and Russia have a centuries old hatred and animosity. Their modern relationship has its origins with the Katyn Forest Massacre. On March 5th, 1940 Joseph Stalin issued an order to execute upwards of 22,000 Polish officers,soldiers, and dissidents. The graves were discovered by the Nazis in 1943 and Russia officially acknowledged in 1990 that the Soviet Union carried out the excutions and buried them in mass graves.
At the end of the 2nd World War, Poland and the rest of Eastern Europe were handed over by treaty to the Soviet Union. Joseph Stalin promptly set up a puppet communist government that took its orders directly from Moscow.
In the post Cold War Era, Poland was free from Soviet influence and it seemed Russia was moving towards democracy. It was, until Vladimir Putin showed up on the scene. Since becoming President and Prime Minister of Russia successively, Vladimir Putin has transformed a promising Russian democracy into a virtual autocracy.
Under Putin's guidance, independent journalism has been suppressed, or quite literally shot dead in a back alley. He has used natural gas to effectively blackmail Ukraine, Poland and Germany to effect domestic policy favorable to Russia. He has imprisoned wealthy opposition and confiscated their wealth. And it could be argued that he has had a hand in poisonings in the UK and the near fatal poisoning of Ukrainian President elect Yushchenko, who defeated a Soviet backed opponent in a run off. Massive voter fraud, with Russian support was implicated but overcome.
The Polish dream of a peaceful future with a democratic Russia has been shattered by Putin's designs.
Yesterday, on September 17, 2009, seventy years to the day that Russia invaded Poland, the United States of America dropped its previous commitments for a missile defense system in Poland. Bad timing is an understatement. It remains to be seen whether or not there will be a just or ample alternative provided. But something must be provided. We must keep our word to a nation that has demonstrated great faith in us. I'll elaborate my views on this at length in future posts, but for the moment, we must not permit history to repeat itself and bear witness to a great people being subject to the tyrannical designs of Vladimir Putin.
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