Kerry Praises Poland as a U.S. Bridge to Europe

WARSAW (Reuters) - U.S. presidential candidate John Kerry, apparently trying to woo Polish-American voters after failing to mention Poland in a debate with President Bush, has praised Warsaw as a U.S. bridge to Europe.

"I am grateful to Poland for seeking to play the role of a bridge between America and Europe during these difficult times and for still believing in our common values," Kerry told Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper in an interview published Monday.

Kerry, a Democratic senator who is slightly behind Bush in opinion polls, failed to mention Poland as a U.S. ally in Iraq during a televised debate in which he accused Bush of going to war in Iraq virtually alone.

Bush reminded Kerry that Poland, the largest ex-communist member of the European Union and NATO, was a key Washington ally in Iraq, where Warsaw has 2,500 troops and commands an 8,000-strong multinational force.

Kerry's failure to mention Poland was played up by the Polish media and has made waves among the roughly 10 million Polish-Americans, many of whom live in election states such as Pennsylvania, Ohio and Wisconsin where the race is close.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=195176

has now officially fizzled.

Fizzle. Crack. Pop.

Hawkeye-X

n/t

n/t

You're kidding, of course?

• "Kerry left off Poland"
KERRY: hen we went in, there were three countries: Great Britain, Australia and the United States. That's not a grand coalition. We can do better.

LEHRER: Thirty seconds, Mr. President.

BUSH: Well, actually, he forgot Poland.

Ensor described Kerry's omission of Poland as an "error." But Kerry did not claim to be providing a comprehensive list of countries with troops in Iraq; Ensor also failed to mention that Kerry went on to explain his criticism of the coalition:

KERRY: But you can't tell me that when the most troops any other country has on the ground is Great Britain with 8,300, and below that the four others are below 4,000, and below that, there isn't anybody out of the hundreds, that we have a genuine coalition to get this job done.

Poland committed approximately 2,500 troops to Iraq, but not "when we went in." As The Washington Post noted on October 1, "Poland later supplied troops and commanded a zone in Iraq. But, except for a few commandos, Polish troops were not part of the original ground invasion." *

http://mediamatters.org/items/200410010004

moving the Air Bridge that goes into Frankfurt and Ramstein to Poland. Poland is cheaper to operate from and it maybe closer to the action (if any occur).

of handicapping the EU with another country which counts being a US ally higher than belonging to the European Union in its midst.

we already had in place. I don't think this new bridge can support all of the traffic.

Jay