Will US Policy Throw Poland and the Czech Republic to the Wolves?

Remember pictures such as this? Almost 30 years ago, Lech Wawesa and the Solidarnosc Movement in Poland shook off the shackles of Soviet oppression. As Chicago is the world's second largest Polish city, Chicagoans watched the unfolding Polish democracy movement not only on national but local news. In Chicago, Solidarity Movement political buttons were not rare on coats, and Polish flags became a common sight.

If Communism creates workers' paradises, why was it was leadership from the factory floor that ousted the Russians? Washington's newly announced abandonment of the Eastern European missile shield has Poland and the Czech Republic very worried, and from a historical perspective, rightly so.

The decision to abandon Poland and the Czech Republic makes it ever clearer that Washington's lack of interest in Poland and the Czech Republic is a result of its increased interest in friendly relations with Russia and Iran. In a void of Presidential leadership, it has fallen to a corporation, the Helmsley Group, to make it clear that they want nothing to do with Iaran or its leadership when they enter the United States for a UN conference next week. Discovering that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was to speak at an event at their New York hotel, the event was promptly cancelled. "Neither the Iranian Mission nor President Ahmadinejad is welcome at any Helmsley facility. The Helmsley organization is grateful to United Against Nuclear Iran for bringing this matter to its attention so that appropriate action could be taken."

Yesterday, I saw a camper driving down a Chicago street that had been decorated for a Tea Party, possibly last Saturday's in Washington, DC. On the side were a couple of signs that said something like "I came to the US at the age of 9 to escape Communism. I did not come here to see the US turn into a Communist Country." According to leadership in Washington, DC, for this blogger to even mention such a sighting, now appears to put a mainstream American--me--into the ranks of kooks, deranged people, race-haters, and other odd types. I beg to differ. Millions of Americans don't have views much different from mine, and they are becoming more vocal by the day.

UPDATE: The Polish cause is near and dear to Chicago Blogger's hearts as blog after blog covers the American treatment of Poland. A few examples, Backyard Conservative, With Both Hands, and Marathon Pundit.