Posted on 09/13/2004 8:34:30 AM PDT by Lukasz
GENEVA: Poland’s President Aleksander Kwasniewski, a staunch ally of the United States in Iraq, criticised US foreign policy on Sunday and said he had warned Washington against trying to dominate Iraq or the world.
Kwasniewski told the Swiss newspaper NZZ am Sonntag that he was proud of close ties with the United States as “important allies” especially in the fight against terror groups, but insisted that did not exclude criticism.
“And there are some things we do not like: ranging from the reconstruction of Iraq, where the Americans awarded contracts somewhat one-sidedly, to the visa question, which is important for Polish citizens,” he said in the interview.
“From the beginning I warned President Bush against a policy of American dominance in Iraq and in the whole world,” Kwasniewski added, while backing the removal of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.
Washington has maintained visa requirements for Poles travelling to the United States although citizens from most other European Union countries are exempt.
The Polish leader rounded on remarks by US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld last year which drove a wedge between the EU’s more pro-US new eastern members like Poland and its more sceptical founding nations.
“I believe Rumsfeld’s division of a ‘new’ and ‘old’ Europe was a political mistake,” Kwasniewski said. France and Germany, opponents of the war in Iraq, were upset by Rumsfeld’s assertion about a year before EU enlargement that the strategic centre of gravity was shifting from an “Old Europe” to a “New Europe” formed by former Soviet bloc countries. Kwasniewski also rejected recent moves by French Finance Minister Nicolas Sarkozy to counter low corporate taxes in new EU member states like Poland by axing structural funds for eastern and central European countries.
pole-catland? never heard of it :( sorry
In some matters he is right, but generally he should shut TF up.
Well do you read article or only headline?
Why?
oh i read the article. i was just making a joke about poland being boring and also not too happening/hip of a place
they just want to fuss about america and to a greater extent George W. Bush. like everyone else in the world. "oh the reason life sucks for all those people in countries where they have brutal dictators is because of america!" "the reason we have hurricanes is america"
etc. etc.
Special Olympic Games have been just started - It's something for him.
"In some matters he is right, but generally he should shut TF up."
Now you are sounding just like Chirac from France. How dare Poland express an opinion. Poland has earned its right to speak and perhaps it is you who should shut TF up and listen.
"I have right to criticize Kwas Mr. Arpege92.."
Actually it's Mrs. Arpege92 and you are right to criticize, but telling someone to shut TF up is not necessary.
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