Poland's leaders barred from White House meetings over Holocaust law

[DonViejo]

Source: Politico-Europe




Polish-American military cooperation might also be in danger.

By ALEKSANDRA WRÓBEL 3/6/18, 2:34 PM CET Updated 3/6/18, 2:39 PM CET

Poland’s leaders will not be allowed to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump or Vice President Mike Pence until Warsaw repeals its controversial new Holocaust law.

Polish web portal Onet.pl (owned by Axel Springer, also a co-owner of POLITICO Europe) on Tuesday reported that it had obtained a memo from Washington dated February 20 about the law, which makes it illegal to suggest that the Polish state or the Polish nation were complicit in Nazi crimes. The information has been confirmed by other Warsaw-based media.

U.S. State Department officials also reportedly warned that the U.S. might withhold funding for joint military projects in Poland because of the law, including the stationing of U.S. troops in the country as part of NATO defense efforts.

According to the document seen by Onet, Wess Mitchell, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs and a close aide of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, said the new law was unacceptable because it violates freedom of expression.

Read more: https://www.politico.eu/article/polands-leaders-barred-from-white-house-meetings-over-holocaust-law/

[Aristus]

1. Trump and Pence falling on the correct side of an issue?

I'm shocked. This is my shocked face:

[Atticus]

2. Any time they seem to be on the "right side" or any issue, it means the REAL

motivation for their stance is not yet apparent. I refuse to credit either one of them with any true sense of morality or decency. "What's in it for ME?" is always their first and only real concern.

[vi5]

3. Maybe they think it doesn't go far enough...

..maybe they are looking for full denial of the holocaust and not just denial of Poland's role in it?

[wobblie]

6. What role did the Polish State have in the Holocaust?

I suspect it is more an example of the Israeli lobby calling the shots

[DFW]

4. If this ends up driving Poland's rightist leaders into Putin's arms

It will also drive them running for the hills in the next election. If there's one thing Poland's population hates worse than leftists and Jews, it's the Russians.

When I was in college, a Polish student there told me two popular jokes from Warsaw at the time.

First: If fleas could glow like lightning bugs, Moscow at night would look like Las Vegas.

Second: A Pole finds an old lamp while walking along a beach on the Baltic. Rubbing it, to his amazement, out comes a genie, who says he will be granted any three wishes. He thinks for a moment, and say his first wish is for the Chinese army to attack Poland. The genie is rather surprised, but agrees. The Pole says his second wish is for the Chinese army to attack Poland again. The genie is not pleased, but agrees. The Pole says his third and final wish is for the Chinese army to attack Poland for a third time. The genie says he is bound by tradition to grant the man his wishes, but demands to know why a Pole wants the Chinese army to attack his country three times in a row. The Pole explains: "To get here, they would have to lay waste to Russia three times." Jokes like these stem from a long-standing, deeply seated hate stemming from centuries of intermittent brutal subjugation that are not erased in a few decades.

[Behind the Aegis]

5. A broken clock is still broken. n/t