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| Europe |
| Polish opposition says leaving Iraq would be a victory for terrorists |
| 2004-09-13 |
| If Poland decides to withdraw its troops from Iraq it will appear to be surrendering to terrorists, Poland's largest opposition party, which tops the country's popularity polls, said on Monday. "To decide to stop participating in a war because there are casualties means, de facto, surrendering," Donald Tusk, head of the liberal Civic Platform party, told public radio a day after three Polish soldiers were killed in an attack south of Baghdad. His comments came on the same day Iraq's interim President Ghazi Al-Yawar arrived in Warsaw for an official visit. "The idea is to withdraw the Polish troops from Iraq in agreement with other allies so as not to give the impression that the Poles are surrendering to terrorism as the Spaniards did" last spring, said Tusk, who is considered a potential presidential candidate for the elections set for the end of 2005. "On the other hand, we must pressure our allies, especially the Americans, so that they present a precise plan for ending the intervention in Iraq, and to learn what in the end was the object of this intervention," he added. Parliamentary elections are also due next year in Poland, with a recent poll putting the PO in the lead with 25 percent support, with the ruling Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) party which committed Polish troops to Iraq receiving seven percent support. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #9 Withdrawal of Polish troops would be a victory for Poland. UFO's home page -- http://politicsandcurrentevents.com |
| Posted by: UFO 2004-09-13 10:03:25 PM |
| #8 Mr. Left: Right now, there are wide swathes of Iraq that are no longer under U.S. control. We can't recapture because that would mean heavy casualties, and the American people won't stand for that. I think when Mr. Left says heavy casualties, he means over 100 KIA a month. Or about 4 a day. Maybe Mr. Left won't stand for it, but most Americans who can remember Vietnam (24 a day) would. I think Mr. Left needs to quit with the purple prose and actually describe the situation with numbers instead of overwrought descriptions. But numbers would detract from the message that sophisticated and literate folks like him want to send when they use words like quagmire, defeat, disaster or incompetence. The only quagmire, defeat, disaster and incompetence is in the overwrought assessments of Iraq written by lazy, incompetent commentators infatuated with their own prose like Mr. Left. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2004-09-14 12:23:03 AM |
| #7 Betcha. |
| Posted by: Mister Write 2004-09-14 12:02:42 AM |
| #6 FB - Lol! Purrfection! |
| Posted by: .com 2004-09-13 11:11:59 PM |
| #5 what a wanker. Glass empty! Quagmire! Quagmire! Quack, Quack. |
| Posted by: Feeling Bitchy 2004-09-13 11:00:01 PM |
| #4 Everyone will have to get out sooner or later. Even us. Right now, there are wide swathes of Iraq that are no longer under U.S. control. We can't recapture because that would mean heavy casualties, and the American people won't stand for that. So the current policy is to leave 'em be and make the odd bombing run now and again. Not what I'd call a recipe for victory. If Mr. Rumsfeld had been right about the Iraqis joyfully embracing American democracy and social ideals, we could have held the country easy. As things stand today, however, the war is already lost. Leave now, leave later, the minute our backs are turned they'll metamorphose into another radical Islamic theocracy. |
| Posted by: Mister Write 2004-09-13 10:29:27 PM |
| #3 [Off-topic or abusive comments deleted] |
| Posted by: UFO TROLL 2004-09-13 10:03:25 PM |
| #2 It is also pretty impressive statesmanship as the Polish people are not terribly hot on the idea of their troops being there. Could have been a wedge issue. That's leadership. |
| Posted by: Mrs. Davis 2004-09-13 7:03:42 PM |
| #1 We could really use a rational opposition like that here in the US of A. |
| Posted by: Ptah 2004-09-13 6:33:02 PM |