Someone explain to me why the "Forgot about Poland" thing is funny

[ShaneGR]

Is it just a matter of being an irrelevant comment?

[genius]

1. Clearly Bush thought that Poland made the coalition more powerful.

After all, don't you think our servicemen were happy Poland was with them?

[Toucano]

2. It's more of a "mommy, mommy!"

"He forgot about Poland, Jim! You can't just let him forget about Poland! He's looking at me! Make him stop!"

Cry-baby-mother-scratching chimp!

[MrBenchley]

10. I also thought it was funny

because there was no "and" after it....

[skygazer]

16. Yeah, I liked that

I was sitting on the sofa saying, "yeah, and.... AND....?"

[MrBenchley]

19. I know...

On a related note, isn't it hilarious to hear the same folks who spent the past four years shouting "cheese-eating surrender monkeys" and "chocolate makers" and "boycott this or that country" and the like suddenly fussing about supposed insults to our allies?

[Proud2BAmurkin]

3. It's almost like Kerry set him up for "what about Poland..waaah"

it was a hilarious moment

[tomfodw]

4. With all due respect to Poland

Their contribution to the "grand coalition" is really not substantial enough to use them as a counter-example. It's like a team losing a football game 100-3 and bringing up the field goal as a sign that they weren't really slaughtered all that bad. It sounds like such an obviously pathetic attempt to weasel out of a bad situation - probably because it is an obviously pathetic attempt to weasel out of a bad situation.

[MrBenchley]

13. I would have loved to see Lehrer

ask pResident Twitchy to NAME all the countries in the "Coalition of the Willing." (I'd also like to see him find them on the globe, but Lehrer wouldn't ask that.)

[Catfight]

18. Speaking of Lehrer, I think he did a great job asking the questions!

[demwing]

33. IIRC, Poland provided a whopping 200 troops

in the initial attack

[peacetalksforall]

5. Because a few months ago there was a revelation that we fund the

Polish contribution. In other words - they send some bodies and we pay for everything (and who knows how much payola). To say it another way - our taxpayers dollars are paying just as they are for our air force and marines and army - they just happen to be Polish citizens and they provide a number to add to the total of 30 coalition members (for propaganda purposes).

If we bought one, we probably bought them all. So how do you like how are money is spent?

[troublemaker]

7. And most importantly, the head of Poland later said Bush

misled him on WMD, so it might have been better not to mention Poland at all.

[MsTryska]

20. I guess that's why they are the

Coalition of the Bribed and Coerced, huh?


thanks for the info, i didn't know that.

[JI7]

6. because Kerry's point was that our "coalition" wasn't strong

it wasn't a true coalition. most of the burden in money, troops, lives etc was still Americans.

so Bush tried to refute that point by saying "he forgot about poland" as if we ARE strong because of Poland.

[alvis]

8. They deceived us about the weapons of mass destruction, that's true.

They deceived us about the weapons of mass destruction, that's true. We were taken for a ride.

President Aleksander Kwasniewski of Poland
19 March , 2004

from Atrios

http://atrios.blogspot.com

[Philostopher]

28. Here's another reason it's funny ...

along the same lines, but with a lot more detail and analysis:

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20041004&s=ost

[Politicub]

9. It was kind of like Gore's "Dingle-Norwood" from the 2000 debates

At least that's how I thought of it. It just sounded silly.

[AlCzervik]

11. from my local excellent cartoonist rex babin

[Awsi Dooger]

12. Poland is always funny

Relying on them to supply soccer players might be one thing, soldiers and wartime brainpower quite another.

I'm 1/4 Polish and proud of it. One of these years I'll read the book I bought on the significance of Polish ancestry.

[skygazer]

21. I have great respect for the Poles

There were many instances of Polish gallantry and heroism in WWII and since. I don't forget that the Warsaw ghetto was virtually the only one in Nazi occupied territory to put up a resistance. Nor do I forget Poland's role in bringing down the Soviet Union. I would never put down a people anyway but the point is Bush is trying to make it sound like the Poles have a massive presence in Iraq when they don't.

[Sparkly]

14. It's as if Kerry had said, "You're only fighting this war with rocks

and sticks!"

And Bush replied, "You forgot about the slingshots."

[skygazer]

23. Great analogy!!

[Gothmog]

15. Stewart on Daily Show had fun with it

Jon Stewart had a great deal of fun with Poland on the Daily Show. It was a very funny skit about Poland is simply not that valuable of an ally.

[MsTryska]

24. and then giuliani had the nerve

to get pissy about the Poland comment.

i thought it was hilarious.

[Gothmog]

29. Rudy was a jerk on TDS

His comment on Poland was stupid.

[MsTryska]

35. guess he realized that that sweet

cabinet gig may not be a go, after all.

[Phillycat]

17. Remember the bit about Afghanistan in F/9-11?

Moore voice-overed, "And Afghanistan is in the coalition? Wait, Afghanistan? Oh yeah! They have an army! OUR ARMY!" Since we fund Poland's army anyway, it's not really that much of a contribution.

[MrBenchley]

25. It was the Solomon Islands

which was surprised that it had joined the coalition when a list was published, and pointed out that it had never been asked and had no army whatsoever to send.

[Crunchy Frog]

27. Costa Rica too. eom

[cmf]

22. It was the way he said it

He was like an angry child trying to make "gotcha!".

[democracy eh]

26. Bush though he was being smart

and thought he would come across as a leader who has a clue is he pointed that out.

but it backfired

[prayin4rain]

30. Because Poland was not part of the original coalition...

"But Bush also made an error when he corrected Kerry to say he forgot to mention Poland supplied forces when the invasion began. Kerry said there were three countries —Great Britain, Australia and the United States — and Bush said, "actually he forgot Poland."

Poland later supplied troops, and actually commanded a zone of Iraq. But they were not part of the original ground invasion. And although Bush said there are 30 countries in the coalition, he neglected to say that about a half dozen countries have withdrawn their troops in recent months."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6144991/?GT1=5472

[sofa king]

31. Poland has only 2500 troops in Iraq.

Poland rates fourth on the list of non-American troops in Iraq. They represent a little more than ten percent of all non-American forces in Iraq, or less than two percent of all troops in Iraq, including Americans.

By comparison, over 1,000 Americans have died in Iraq, or 40% of the entire armed force committed by Poland. Some seven thousand Americans have been wounded in Iraq, well over twice the total number of Polish forces in Iraq.

Another way to put it is that with 2,500 troops, Poland can put one soldier on each corner of a 50 square block area.

Poland plans to reduce their presence in Iraq by a further 1,000 troops.

It's very fair to ridicule the miniscule numbers of troops Poland has committed to the occupation of Iraq. However, it is very unfair to minimize the superlative contribution that small group of soldiers makes in Iraq. The Polish special forces, GROM, is amongst the finest in the world and acted as a significant "force multiplier" during the invasion. Poland leads the 7,000 man Central-South multinational "division" in Iraq and is responsible for guarding a significant proportion of the entire country.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/iraq_orbat_coalition.htm
(John Kerry's masterful breakdown of coalition strength in Iraq almost certainly came from the figures above.)
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/iraq_orbat.htm
http://icasualties.org/oif/

(Edit: in light of prayin4rain's post above, it's worth pointing out that GROM's role in the actual invasion was unacknowledged at the time and may still be officially under wraps. The President may have made a security faux pas by admitting that Poland was there--although the military press seems to have been aware of it, since they've been reporting it since 2003.)

[northlake1]

32. Shades of 1976 Debate Ford/Carter

In the 1976 Ford/Carter debate, one month before the election, the issues of a "Free Poland" was raised. In responding to questions President Ford said, "There is no Soviet dominance of Eastern Europe." (yea right!)

I remembered Ford's answer when I heard Bush* say, "You forgot Poland!"

The press pummeled Ford for days on his statement. I remember that most people thought Ford had won that debate, but the perception was instilled that he was not up to it.

I think Ford lost because of the Nixon pardon, not because of Poland but to have Poland again come up again in a debate and the opportunity to ridicule another republic(an) pResident is sublime.

[demwing]

34. Yep, a big pile of Karma Pie

come full circle