President Trump received a warm and enthusiastic welcome when he spoke spoke in front of a large and enthusiastic crowd at Krasinski Square at the Royal Castle in Warsaw at the foot of a statue commemorating the 1944 Polish uprising against German occupiers. He and first lady Melania Trump laid a wreath at its base.
The Polish crowd greeted President Trump with the sort of warmth and enthusiasm the president gets at his rallies, with repeated chants of 'Donald Trump' and 'USA!'
And what President Trump had to say to them was almost Churchillian:
Here's a brief excerpt:
"Each generation must rise up and play their part in [their culture's] defense. Every foot of ground and every last inch of civilization is worth defending with your life.
Our own fight for the West does not begin on the battlefield, it begins with our minds, our wills, and our souls. Today, the ties that unite our civilization are no less vital and demand no less defense than that bare shred of land on which the hope of Poland once totally rested.
Our freedom, our civilization, and our survival depend on these bonds of history, culture, and memory, and today as ever Poland is in our heart and its people are in that fight.
Just as Poland could not be broken, I declare today for the world to hear that the West will never, ever, be broken. Our values will prevail. Our people will thrive. And our civilization will triumph."
Trump's words had particular impact in this time and place. Poland has always been in the forefront of defending the West, whether is was the Mongols, the Ottoman hordes, the Nazis or the Soviets. The monument in Krasinski Square commemorates a heroic Polish uprising against the Nazis in 1944 that saw something like 200,000 people murdered, almost all of them civilians and Warsaw razed to the ground.
And Poland, since its liberation from the Evil Empire has always been a firm U.S. ally, even sending its soldiers to fight at our side in Iraq and Afghanistan. Their reward, of course, was to be betrayed by Barack Hussein Obama and denied them the anti-missile protection they were promised. To add insult to injury, President Obama's announcement came on September 17th, the 70th anniversary of the Soviet Union's invasion of eastern Poland during World War II in collaboration with the Nazis.
When Polish President Polish president Lech Kaczynski, his wife Maria, Solidarity leader Anna Walentynowicz,Poland's National Bank President Slawomir Skrzypek, Army chief of staff General Franciszek Gagor were killed in a tragic and somewhat mysterious airplane crash over Russian territory, President Obama almost alone among world leaders declined to attend the funerals.
In another context, Trump's appearance in Poland and at the Three Seas summit* marks a major change in the relationship with what former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld presciently referred to as 'New Europe and the United States. What we're talking about is brand new, stronger ties to the Visograd nations and the Balkan countries.
Aside from the obviously much warmer and friendlier climate with a key ally, President Trump put three very important cards on the table:
- Poland and very likely Czechoslovakia and other Visograd nations are going to finally be able to purchase U.S. Arms, particularly missiles and missile defense elements. And security cooperation is going to be vastly improved.
- President Trump reaffirmed his iron clad commitment to Article 5 of the NATO charter, that an attack on one signatory would be considered an attack on all.
- Poland just received its first shipment of American liquid natural gas. Remember the war between Russia and Georgia? As I pointed out in the story linked above, one big reason for Russia's aggression had nothing to do with South Ossetia but with energy. Russia's biggest 'persuader' when it comes to Europe is the Kremlin's monopoly on the energy export routes to the West from the old parts of its former Soviet empire. The one part the Russians didn't control was the oil and gas pipeline that leads from energy-rich Azerbaijan to Turkey, across Georgia...and it's notable that the Russians bombed it as well as the Georgian port of Poti, neither of which is anywhere near South Ossetia. What President Trump is talking about here is removing a key element of blackmail from Russia's arsenal by all by guaranteeing an alternate supplier to New Europe. And as you'll hear in the joint news conference below, Poland's conservative President Duda has hopes of making Poland a trading corridor for U.S. energy and goods to the rest of the Visograd and Three Seas nations.
- And finally, President Trump is signalling support for New Europe in defying Germany and Angela Merkel on Muslim migrants and even remaining in the EU itself if it comes to that. A recent poll revealed that 70% of the Poles would rather leave the EU that be bullied into importing the same kind of chaos Germany, France, the UK and Sweden among others have brought into their countries.
Before the speech, President Trump held a joint press conference early Thursday morning in Warsaw with Polish President Andrzej Duda.(skip ahead to 51:53 for the actual joint press conference)
I particularly like the part where some idiot U.S. 'journalist' tries to once again tries to resurrect the old story about Russia hacking the election, and wasn't the president going to admit that? After all, hadn't 17 U.S. intelligence agencies all come to the same conclusion?
President Trump's reply was a gem.He patiently explained that maybe Russia was involved, but it might also have been at least five other countries. And he also let her in on the fact that it was only three intelligence agencies that thought Russia was involved, although there was no real evidence yet. And a lot of what he called her 'compatriots' had already had to apologize and correct their stories.And then he lowered the boom...
"Here's the question I want the answer to. The CIA told president Barack Obama that there was a possibility of Russian hacking in the election back in August. Now th eelection was in Novemeber. That's a long time,but he never did anything about it. Why? His people say he choked, but I think it was because he was sure Hillary was going to win the election and he didn't want to disturb anything."
The reporter immediately blurted out a follow up again insisting that Trump say that Russia was responsible, so President Trump calmly repeated his answer.
Now as you'll see in the video, President Duda had told the press beforehand that there would only be four questions because he and President Trump had to be at Krasinski Square for the ceremony, but this woman paid no attention, which didn't exactly make her popular with the other reporters. She said pretty much the same thing again, after which President Trump and President Duda exchanged a brief, weary smile , President Duda made slight gesture and the harridan's microphone was cut off so the two men could leave for a far more important task.
* The Three Seas summit, convened by the presidents of Poland and Croatia, involves nations situated between the Baltic, Adriatic, and Black Seas and is designed to strengthen trade and economic ties and energy platforms as well as address joint national security. Most of the nations involved have refused to obey German Chancellor Angela Merkel's diktat to open their country's borders to more Muslim 'refugees.' Many of these countries, like Poland have Euroskeptic governments.President Trump's appearance there after his speech was a major coup for the Poles and an excellent opportunity for a lot of the leaders of New Europe to meet President Trump forth first time, a vastly different leader than his predecessor.
Now, it's off to the G-20 summit in Germany, where President Trump is, shall we say, far less popular. and of course, a meeting with Russia's Vladimir Putin for the first time. Alpha male meets Alpha male!
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