Despite Bush’s invocation of Poland twice at last week’s debate, only once correctly, it looks like they’ve had enough of both Bush and Iraq according to this just in from AFP:
In the first Presidential Debate, Bush had attempted to correct a statement by Kerry…
LEHRER: Thirty seconds, Mr. President.
BUSH: Well, actually, he forgot Poland. And now there’s 30 nations involved, standing side by side with our American troops.
Well, actually…he didn’t Mr. “President”. Poland was not there when you rushed in to find no Weapons of Mass Destruction with no plans on how to win your war. Poland didn’t add troops to the effort until after Baghdad fell. (After the “Mission” was “Accomplished”).
Poland, who’s President told reporters last March, “[T]hey deceived us about the weapons of mass destruction, that’s true. We were taken for a ride,” now becomes the 10th country (if my count is accurate…it’s hard to really tell who was ever in or out) to pull out of Bush’s “Miscalculation”.
Brad, sorry to burst the bubble, but Poland isn’t withdrawing. Rather, they "aim" to withdraw by the end of 2005 due to the expiration of the UN Security Council Resoution. What you forgot to add was that Poland plans to stay in until the job is finished and won’t cut and run.
Troll
No Spinning
http://rightwingtroll.blogspot.com/
Okay. Appreciate it. But two questions:
1) Are they not withdrawing half of their troops by the end of THIS year? (in a coupla months)
2) If Kerry suggested we withdraw half our troops by the end of this year, and the rest of them by the end of 2005 "due to the expiration of the UN Security Council Resolution" would you (or Bush) not charge that Kerry was cutting and running?
(I’ll remind you that Kerry suggested he *might* be able, if all things went as he planned, to withdraw all troops in 4 years, and at the time, Bush/Cheney charged him w/ cutting and running.)
Your thoughts?
1. According to Reuters, the only thing I saw mentioned was the "end of 2005" – http://tinyurl.com/4eh8h
The link you provided concered Australia’s reaction to poland pulling out, which also mentioned this. Is there another link I missed? The only other news within the last couple days was the Polish President slamming Kerry for not considereing Poland as an ally – http://www.drudgereport.com/dnc58.htm
2. I would consider that cutting and running. As you were trying to make this pertain to question 1, I don’t feel it really applies anymore.
Troll
Thanks, Troll. Looks like I had the wrong link there originally (have corrected it, so the link matches the text that I was quoting).
Quickly — as I need to get downstairs for the debate — here’s two other quick links for more info:
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl...s_041005183033
and
http://cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast...ops/index.html
Sorry for the confusion. Too much blogging, too fast. My bad 🙂
Ok, Now it’s January 2006, and Poland is still in Iraq and just announced that it’s going to extend the stay for another year. As for the "President’s mistake"… He was actually right, poland did join the fighting BEFORE the "mission was accomplished." Poland sent special forces (GROM) early in the fighting, but that information was being kept secret at first.