Of Polish Angst and NATO

By ROGER COHEN
NYT

LISBON — “How could Obama choose such a day?”

That was the anguished outburst of a senior Polish officer attending a meeting of NATO chiefs of defense here when asked what he thought of the U.S. president’s cancellation last week of plans to place missile interceptors in Poland and a radar station in the Czech Republic.

The officer was referring to the fact that the announcement came on Sept. 17, the 70th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland. A gesture to Russia on this date — a “brave” decision said Vladimir Putin — was the rough equivalent for the Poles of their announcing concessions to a U.S. foe on 9/11.

Poland is now one of the very few places in Europe that prefers former President Bush to Obama.

Now I’m sure Obama had no desire to insult Poland, even if the announcement also came as Russia conducted large-scale military maneuvers with Belarus, an exercise on its western flank that summons the darkest specters of post-Soviet Polish and Baltic-state angst. As U.S. timing goes, this was pitiful.

(More here.)