No Joke: Poland is our best friend in Europe

The Weekly Standard ^ | 02/03/03 | Matthew Kaminski

[Marysecretary]

Friends of ours went to Poland to visit other friends they knew there and can't wait to go back. They loved it.

[duke_h3]

Poppycock!!! The USSR from day one envisioned Poland as being just another SSR in the Soviet Union. That is why the Poles launched their pre-emptive attack on the Bolsheviks in 1920, they knew the Bolsheviks would eventually attack. Ever since the "Miracle on the Vistula" the Soviets were craving revenge. As far as Nazi Germany, anyone who read "Mein Kampf" would have known that Poland was destined to be "lebensraum."

Well unfortunately for Poland, Pilsudski didn't read Mein Kampf. As for the strategy of the USSR, in the 1920 they still envisioned Poland as part of the USSR. But with the rise of Stalin the "Internationalists" lost (in many cases there lives) and the USSR turned inwards onto there own problems. Expansion was the last thing on the Russians mind. They wanted to keep what they got, and trouble with it they had. Trapped between an expansionistic Japan and a Europe that was ideologically hostile to there political conviction.

[Marysecretary]

Pulaski, NY was named after him. I think there's a statue of him someplace in New Hartford. M

[Marysecretary]

the best Polish jokes I ever heard were from all the Polish neighbors we had "up on the 'Nob."

[Marysecretary]

Corrie tenBoom and her family were cast into the concentration camps because they helped the Jews. They were Dutch watchmakers. Her books, The Hiding Place, and In My Father's House are classics. She spent her years helping the Jews recover in her retreat centers. There was a true servant of God. Never forget!

[Marysecretary]

Are you doing this through the Fellowship of Christians and Jews? I know they are very active in getting Jews out of Russia to Israel. I would like to know more about it. What an opportunity to make up for what we couldn't do in the second world war. I would like information if you have any.

[Myrddin]

My company does a fair amount of work with NATO. That offered opportunities to do support work in Germany, Italy, Turkey and Belgium in the early 90's. I made a point of building linguistic proficiency in German, French and Turkish before taking those trips. The prospect of moving activities to Poland means another language. Barnes & Noble has one fewer copy of Colloquial Polish in stock. This one's going to be a challenge. I look forward to supporting our troops in Poland...if the opportunity is presented. It would be a good move for the U.S. and Poland.

[lorrainer]

Sorry! Better now? :o)

[traditionalist]

They helped the nazis identify all the Jews in Poland better than any other country.

Go tell your lies somewhere else.