Saturday, April 10, 2010

Polish Katyn Tragedy

Our thoughts and prayers go out to all Poles on a day seemingly as tragic as that which claimed most of the Polish officer corps 70 years ago. Unfortunately, almost 20 years of US - Polish cooperation were laid to waste when President Obama delayed deployment of the much anticipated missile shield. The sincerity perceived by any gestures of condolence by our administration will be watered down by how we treated our most loyal post Cold War ally when we failed to stand behind Poland when they were prepared to take a tough stance against Medvedev and Putin's Russia by agreeing to place a state of the art missile defense system within its borders.

Pray that the Poles remain strong and independent in very tumultuous times having witnessed reforms in Ukraine, Georgia, and Kyrgyzstan reverse course very recently either through elections plagued with fraud or outright violence. May the world watch events in Poland and the Balitcs very closely as Russia will undoubtedly seize this tragedy as an opportunity to further extend its inflence through its former buffer states. As go the Poles, so will the Baltics.

Having a US president perceived as weak throughout the world will do nothing to help matters for the Poles. I fear that although the Poles have suffered greatly today, this is only the beginning.

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