Three Cheers for Poland

[Geee]

Front Page Magazine:

I don’t often find myself agreeing with Thomas L. Friedman, but I’ve now discovered for myself that a New York Times column he wrote ten years ago, and that I remember reading at the time, was right on the money.

 

“Poland,” he declared, “is the antidote to European anti-Americanism.” Noting that he had spent much of the previous two years being targeted by anti-Americanism in Western Europe and the Middle East, he’d spent three days in Poland “and got two years of anti-American bruises massaged out of me.” To his surprise, Poles “actually tell you they like America — without whispering.”

 

 

As someone who’s spent most of the last fifteen years or so living and traveling in Western Europe, I’ve experienced more anti-Americanism than I care to remember. But last week, like Friedman back in 2003, I spent a few days in Poland and found that, yep, they actually do like America.

 

A 2007 Heritage Foundation report affirmed this fact: “Poland has supported America’s global leadership role….Wherever America is doing good in the world, Poland is not far behind.” It’s no coincidence that Poland, along with the U.S., Britain, and Australia, was one of the four leading members of the “coalition of the willing” in Iraq.