Poland's elites clap as US Army wreaks havoc on Polish streets

On January 12th, a thousand US soldiers arrayed in columns of tanks, armored vehicles, and transport trucks - one of the largest offensive troop movements to the East since Hitler’s Operation Barbarossa - poured onto Polish soil. They were greeted more than enthusiastically by Polish Prime Minister Szydlo, herself a graduate of the US State Department’s International Visitor Leadership program, who declared:

“This is a great holiday on which I can say that the government which I have the honor to stand at the head of, has fulfilled the obligation it took before Poles to defend our countrymen and our fatherland…the country welcomes representatives of the most wonderful army in the world.”

Unfortunately for Szydlo, the arrival of US troops in Poland is only partially the merit of the Polish government’s lobbying to be turned into a battlefield in a potential war with Russia. Instead, the accomplishment lies with Barack Obama, who hurried to deploy hordes of tanks and troops a month ahead of schedule in order to present US President Donald Trump, with a fait accompli.

Defense Minister Macierewicz, who has taken the liberty upon himself of renaming Poland the “Eastern Flank of NATO,” nevertheless tried to outdo Szydlo:

“We’ve waited a long time for you, tens of years, often feeling a sense of loneliness.…Often feeling like we are the only ones defending civilization from the threats from the East…Together we are defending freedom.”

Unfortunately for Macierewicz, Poland will not be joined in its “defense of civilization” by San Escobar, the non-existent country which Polish Foreign Minister Waszczykowski assured is supporting Poland’s bid to join the UN Security Council.

Thanks to Macierewicz, however, Poland will also be seeking an enemy in China. The defense minister cancelled the long-standing project of converting an old, abandoned military base into a center for commercial trading with China because, according to him, such threatens to “eliminate the United States’ influence in the Eurasian zone” and because China wants to “liquidate Poland’s independence,” the proof of which is….the fact that the trading center won’t be built. Thanks to the US Army’s deployment in Poland, however, Macierewicz assured everyone that “Poland will no longer be lonesome.”

Since US boots set foot on Polish soil on January 12th, the “strongest, best, and most wonderful army in the world” (PM Szydlo’s words) has demonstrated just how seriously and professionally it is capable of fulfilling its mission.

On January 21st, a US soldier was injured in a Humvee crash.

On January 22nd, a US military truck flipped over and spilled M-1 Abrams tank shells all over a busy road, injuring one soldier and hospitalizing another.

On January 24th, another US military vehicle crashed head-on into a Polish civilian bus, landing two injured Poles in the hospital.

Then, on January 26th, a fourth accident occurred when a US Army lorry got itself stuck under an underpass.

January 29th was no exception - another US Army truck collided with a road barrier, spilling around 400 liters of gas in the same area where tank shells went flying a week before. When journalists asked a passerby about the incident, they received a telling response:

“A week ago they spilled tank shells, and now this! If they’re supposed to protect us, then no thanks. They’re not defending us; they’re just upsetting Russia.”

These and more incidents have also resurfaced memories of when US soldiers killed one Polish civilian and injured another in a convoy collision back in June 2016.

These accidents, however, didn’t figure into the war game simulations organized at the Warsaw National Stadium by Western and Polish defense companies during the same week “to identify force structure and defense planning requirements for defeating Russian General Staff plans for the occupation of the Baltic States…[and] the disintegration of the European Union and NATO.”

Meanwhile, Poles’ support for the “guarantee of geopolitical security” supposedly offered by US troop deployments in Poland and the hectic preparations for a supposed war with Russia is questionable.

According to one survey, as many as 36.1% of Poles believe that the US Army’s presence in Poland does not increase the security of Poles or the country, and 16.5% are convinced that it “decisively does not.” Approximately the same figures are replicated in Poles’ surveyed views of NATO. On the topic of US missile systems being installed on Polish soil, 59% of Poles believe that this increases the threat of Poland becoming a target of missile attacks.

And with good reason. Numerous experts have pointed out the daunting reality that the stationing of US-NATO troops and missile systems in Poland is a guarantee of war and conflict, not stability. Russia, as the country against whom NATO and US troops are aimed against, has repeatedly called such troop movements aggressive and urged for dialogue against “pseudo-analyses.” For Poland’s part, numerous sober voices have warned that Poland, by unequivocally inviting US-NATO troop build-ups on its soil and pushing an aggressive “security” doctrine specifically indicating the need to preemptively attack Russia, is in fact painting a target on its own back and sealing its fate as a conflict zone.

The most renowned Polish critic of NATO who has repeatedly drawn attention to this worrying development, Mateusz Piskorski, has been held in prison on no charges since May 18th, 2016. Two days before, Piskorski had warned that US and NATO troops in Poland can now suppress protests and dissent on the grounds of combatting “hybrid war.” His party, Zmiana, one of the few political forces that have stood consistently against Poland’s manipulation by NATO and called for Poland to base its security on good relations with all countries, has similarly been subjected to outright political repression.

It is also only a matter of time until the scandals and crimes typical of the US Army in Europe - from rape to bar fights to outbreaks of violence resultant of untreated mental disorders - will repeat themselves in Poland. Polish tax dollars will have to fix the destruction wreaked by clumsy American convoys and the crimes committed by US troops will go unpunished thanks to the scandalous SOFA agreement signed back in 2009. As the US Army continues to treat Poland as an accident site and training ground, Poles’ confidence in their “geopolitical defenders” will only wane, and the very point of the “Eastern Flank” itself will begin to be questioned.

For now, the sovereignty of supposedly “at-last free, independent Poland” continues to be crucified on the altar of Polish officialdom’s incredulous statements. Poland’s ruling Law and Justice government, while posing as the “patriotic” revanche against the Brussels-phile opposition, has let the US Army occupy Polish territory - not only without a shot fired, but with the charm of statements and scandals so ludicrous and deplorable that they will most likely go down in history as the latest generation of “Polish jokes.”