War in Afghanistan
Obama’s decision to boost U.S. troops in Afghanistan is probably his third proper decision in the office since his January inauguration (the first being the pardoning of a turkey for the Thanksgiving and the second his recent recognition of the presidential elections in Honduras). For those, who awarded Mr. Obama the Nobel Peace Prize, his decision may be somewhat disappointing, however, for those who value the U.S. national security in the first place and who analyze the Afghan war from purely American perspective, that decision makes sense.
It is nevertheless curious how Mr. Obama continues to be very inconsistent in his foreign policy. Not so recently ago, he cancelled the Bush’s antimissile defense shield in Poland and the Czech Republic and did so on a shameful day of the 70th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland of 1939, only to call the Polish Prime Minister, just two months later, to ask him for more Polish troops to be sent to Afghanistan as almost all other European nations refused to contribute new soldiers. If there is any wisdom in openly insulting a given nation and showing to it that America does not keep its own, freely negotiated obligations and then to almost beg that nation for more troops, then perhaps only this particular Administration is able to see it.
It is similarly regretful that the Polish government eventually bent to Obama’s pressure and informally promised to increase its Afghan contingent by 600-1000 more troops. Poland’s “independently made” decision is to be officially announced at the end of the year, although the government’s press secretary already indicated that the Polish troops’ increase is almost certain and what remains to be negotiated is merely its actual number.
Sadly, that decision makes little sense from Poland’s perspective. Poland is contributing something tangible, i.e. the life of its own troops and its taxpayers’ money, for something very intangible, i.e. Obama’s promise that he would honor Art. 5 of the NATO Treaty, should any of NATO’s countries be attacked. That Obama’s promise is especially illusory as he has already proven that he is capable of and willing to violate security-related treaties in bilateral Polish-U.S. relations. Moreover in respect to other countries to which he promised almost the same, i.e. Georgia, he remains extremely passive, although in his last year presidential campaign he vigorously called for inclusion of Georgia and Ukraine into NATO.
Poland once again exhibited a rather narrow strategic thinking and its deep rooted, post-communist “battered wife syndrome”. Poland has been fighting along with America in the last two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, eventually to see the main benefit of its own engagement, i.e. the Bush’s antimissile defense shield project, being cancelled by Bush’s successor in the Oval office. All Poland gained from its military engagement on America’s side is: tens of lives lost, no business contracts for the reconstruction of Iraq for the Polish companies, hundreds of millions of dollars spent and perhaps one unarmed MIM 104 Patriot mobile battery for training purposes that might be delivered in the future by the U.S.
From Poland’s perspective, its participation in the war in Afghanistan makes almost no sense. If there are some politicians in Warsaw, who believe that the United States and Barack Obama in particular, would risk a nuclear war with Russia to defend Poland from another invasion, then they are exhibiting merely their own wishful thinking, which has rather little to do with political reality.
