The Polish “gaffe.”

by

The nation of Poland and hundreds of thousands of Polish-Americans were outraged when President Obama referred last week to “Polish Death Camps” in a speech awarding a medal of freedom to a Polish American named Jan Kozielewski who was smuggled into a death camp and brought evidence of the Holocaust to President Roosevelt. Evidence that was ignored.

There is a back story to this controversy that is only now starting to come out. In 2009, President Obama cancelled US missile sites that were intended to defend Poland and Czech Republic against Iranian missiles. The action was taken at the Russians’ request without even notifying the Polish government. That crisis began when the US promised to install such a missile site in 2008. After Obama took office, He cancelled the agreement without bothering to notify the Poles.

Subsequently, Walesa refused to meet with Obama when he was on a visit to Poland. He said,” ‘It’s difficult to tell journalists what you’d like to say to the president of a superpower. This time I won’t tell him, I won’t meet him, it doesn’t suit me,’ Walesa told news station TVN24.”

The European reaction was negative.

The president hadn’t even had a chance to redecorate the Oval Office before he felt the need, in fall of 2009, to appease Moscow by scrapping plans to build a missile defense shield protecting Poland and the Czech Republic from attack by Russia, Iran or any other aggressor.

At the time, the Polish minister of defense said, “This is catastrophic for Poland.”

The message, once again, delivered loud and clear to America’s friends, allies and enemies alike, is that the U.S. can’t be relied on.

This is what American voters get when they elect to the presidency an underexperienced man weighed down by an oversized ego.

Now, Obama, who has been shown to be a petty man,

got his revenge on Walesa by barring him from the ceremony.That was no gaffe. TelePrompTers don’t make gaffes.

12 thoughts on “The Polish “gaffe.””

  1. While Auschwitz death machine was running, it was in what the Nazis considered to be metropolitan Germany. At the end of the war, Stalin moved the eastern boundary of Germany about 100 mi to the west of where it had been since the reconstruction of Poland at the end of the Great War (WWI), the Oder-Neisse line. As nearly as I can tell though, Auschwitz was in the valley of the Wisla (Vistula) river which flows through Krakow and Warsaw, and which is the heart of Poland in all ages, and would not have been considered German at any time.

    The faster we get the Insane Clown Posse out of the White House, the better off we all will be.

  2. It was clear to many of us that Polish death camps referred to camps within Poland. We all know of course that no Polish citizens would ever harm a Jew.

  3. ” no Polish citizens would ever harm a Jew.”

    None of the one million Poles that died in the camps would ever harm a Jew.

    FIFY

  5. MK – I will be the first to admit I can be thick headed – and I will agree that he is petty – but how is saying ‘Polish death camps” an insult to Walese rather than an indication of Obama’s own ignorance?

    I tend to side with Renminbi on this one – he is some genetic mutant – I think of all the European countries it is the Poles who have suffered the most though the centuries.

    Their borders shift crazily left east and west – yet they remain – Poles.

    And I was thinking after your article of Germany and the USSR agreeing to carve them up – and “The Zero” (to use Dan’s term) pulling the rug out from them with the missile defense shield.

    Arrogance combined with ignorance is a dangerous thing – but they usually go together.

  7. Bill, I think his insult to Walesa was refusing to allow him to represent Poland at the medal ceremony but I think the “Polish Death Camps” thing, which was on the teleprompter I assume, is an example of his petty sense of entitlement. I equate it with giving Hillary the finger during the debate but holding his hand away from her so she couldn’t see it but giving the eye to his supporters in the audience who could. It is so like him. Giving the Queen a collection of his speeches are in the same vein. I could be wrong about how petty he is but we may find out during the campaign.

  9. Obama saying Walesa is “too political” is rich – coming from him.

    Everything, apparently, to him is a political calculation.

    Of the 2 personalities Walesa is a giant for his standing up to the Communists – I guess he really was the father of Poland’s independence from communism – and Obama is just a Chicago politician.

    And, as it is becoming obvious, not even a very good one.

    I think Romney had 2 masterful strokes against him in the last couple of days – his speaking in front of Solyndra – and his blocking Axelrod (and his MSM minions) from making points in MA. Using the same tactics as Obama, no less.

    I think you are right Michael about his pettiness and slight against Walesa.I had forgotten the Hillary incident.

    Exactly how he thinks that helps him is beyond me.

    There are a lot of ethnic Poles – in Chicago no less – who are traditional Democratic voters – as so many Jews who are traditional Democrats – and blacks – he has made them all wonder just why it is they are supposed to pull the lever for him.

  10. renminbi Says: “He is like one of the replicants out of Blade-runner.”

    Good News. He will be deactivated on 1/20/13

  11. I’ll make a prediction.

    The magnitude of Obama’s pettiness will astound us when he loses the 2012 election.

    Obama’s post-defeat behavior will make Carter’s post-defeat behavior look positively magnanimous.

  12. Remember that Chicago is the largest Polish city outside of Poland. I remember when Heguish (sp?) had shop and street signs in Polish.

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