New Polish premier vows to end deployment in Iraq
WARSAW, Poland - In a sign of the rapid about-face since October’s elections in Poland, Prime Minister Donald Tusk pledged Friday to end Poland’s military deployment in Iraq in 2008 and vowed that his nation will engage in more “dialogue” with its neighbors before it accepts a U.S. missile-defense system on Polish soil.
The three-hour speech before parliament marked a significant departure from the politics of the past two years, when President Lech Kaczynski and his twin brother, former prime minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, set Poland on a nationalist course that largely supported U.S. military objectives but antagonized neighboring nations in the European Union and at times was openly hostile to Russia.
Lech Kaczynski remains president, but his brother - who lost the premiership when his party was tossed from power in the Oct. 21 elections - was reduced Friday to grumbling from the opposition benches. He accused Tusk’s new coalition government of taking Poland “back to the ’90s” on a course of rapid privatization, lower taxes and what he called inappropriate government skulduggery and political warfare.
Tusk, the 50-year-old leader of the pro-free-market Civic Platform party, pledged to plunge forward with Poland’s economic reforms and also said he would uphold the party’s campaign promise to end Poland’s involvement in Iraq.
“In a year’s time, I will tell you here in this chamber that our military mission in Iraq is over,” Tusk said, as the house erupted in applause.
“We have taken the decision, as far as the government powers go, to make 2008 the year when the pullout of Poland’s military mission is started and completed,” Tusk said. “We will carry out that operation with the conviction that we have done more than what our allies, especially the U.S., had expected from us.”
He said Poland would leave its 1,200 troops in Afghanistan next year while phasing out its 900-troop deployment in south central Iraq, where it leads a contingent of 10 nations.
But he was much less committal on whether Poland would move forward with allowing the U.S. to position 10 defensive missiles in Poland, as the heart of its planned missile-defense strategy in Europe, a program which Russia warns will start a new arms race.
While the previous Polish government was at loggerheads with Russia, Tusk’s ministers have made it clear they will consult Russia and Poland’s neighbors before making any decision on missile defense.
“For the time being, we do not have a strict doctrine on the American base deployment. Our decision will be based on common sense,” Tusk said. “We are going to pursue our negotiations with our American partners on this question once we have reviewed the matter.”
He hinted that Poland might expect additional incentives from the U.S., an issue that some of his political allies have translated into suggestions of additional military aid. “Poland will seek to convince its American partners that our alliance must result in a greater American presence in Poland,” the prime minister said.
Of Moscow, he said: “We want dialogue with Russia. The absence of dialogue helps neither side.”
The U.S. says the defensive system is aimed not at Russia but at potential future aggression from nations like Iran. And contrary to Tusk’s suggestion of a greater U.S. presence, Russia is opposed to new American military infrastructure on Europe’s boundaries, particularly in a country that once was a Soviet ally.
Tusk repeatedly called for a new era of trust between government and citizens, which he said was a crucial underpinning to economic development and the creation of a modern civil society.
“For example, he said, if you trust each other, you can decentralize, and decentralization means more power to local government, it means decentralization of the European regional policy, it means a bigger role of self-governance in education, in health. He showed how this can develop positive energy in many different spheres,” said Lena Kolarska-Bobinska, head of the Warsaw-based Institute of Public Affairs. “All this positive energy is completely opposite from the philosophy of the Kaczynskis in the last two years.”