Presidents Komorowski and Obama in Warsaw for the 25th celebration
of Freedom Day in Poland:
Is President Obama successfully seizing the
opportunity to rally a reluctant
Europe to face down Vladimir Putin?
Obama's Chance to Make Up for Missteps Toward Poles (Rzeczpospolita, Poland)
"Obama himself has disappointed us before. ... However,
Russian aggression in Ukraine has changed both the U.S. and Obama, who is less
afraid of a geopolitical confrontation than Western Europeans. Obama may have
cared little for our security, but our European allies have cared even less.
The Germans inparticular provide ample
proof that their neighbor's fate is less important to them than keeping Putin
happy."
President Obama bursts through Polish flags before delivering a speech on Freedom Day - when Poles celebrate one of the seminal events that broke the back of Soviet domination of Eastern Europe - the Polish elections of 1989.
Russia
is returning to the sphere of darkness. America must again lead the threatened
West
It
would be difficult to find a more symbolic moment for the U.S. president's
visit to Poland. Barack Obama has arrived to celebrate the 25th
anniversary of the collapse of communism, the farewell to Moscow's domination
and the Cold War. The celebration, however, is accompanied by a new fear about
the future of the region. Poland and the other countries of Central and Eastern
Europe may be sure of only one thing: communism will not be reborn here. And
yet, the farewell to Russian domination and the Cold War may have been
temporary. So says Vladimir Putin by unleashing a war in Ukraine.
Posted
By Worldmeets.US
Therefore,
Obama is confronted with a task that could determine how his presidency will be
judged. He has a chance, here in Warsaw, to present a vision for defending our
Western world from a Russia that is breaking the rules and returning to its
dark past - and then putting this vision into effect.
Our
region needs confirmation that the armies of the United States and NATO will behave
just as they did during the Cold War, when all of the West felt threatened, and
when the allies treated their treaty obligations arising from Article 5 seriously, requiring
them come to one another's defense.
Now
we are the threatened West. Without American engagement those fears will remain.
Are we naďve to have such expectations? Poland has already survived one episode
of unrequited love with America. She was a faithful ally in Iraq and
Afghanistan, and as for the war against Islamic terrorism, she was so loyal
that it allowed the CIA break Polish law [by operation black prison sites on
its territory]. What has she gotten in return? Not much. The benefits remain
rudimentary, visas are still required [for Poles traveling to the U.S.].
Obama
himself has disappointed us before - and in the area of our national security.
First, on September 17, 2009, on the 70th anniversary of the partitioning of
Poland by the Soviet Union and Germany, he scrapped the anti-missile shield. He
then promised the Russian president [Medvedev] a further scaling back of
anti-missile defenses in Europe.
However,
Russian aggression in Ukraine has changed both the U.S. and Obama, who is less
afraid of a geopolitical confrontation than Western Europeans. Obama may have
cared little for our security, but our European allies have cared even less. The
Germans inparticular provide ample proof
that their neighbor's fate is less important to them than keeping Putin happy.
America
again has an important role to play in the region. The president of the United
States must lead the West.
