Poland in Irak

Tuesday, March 20, 2007
The Beatroot So what has Poland got out of Iraq?

Four years after their government sent in its troops, Poles are scratching their heads as to what exactly they have got out of the bloody mess.

The decision to join the coalition of the (not so) willing in Iraq, on Warsaw’s part, was not just the usual eagerness to support the US in anything and everything. It was naked opportunism.

Way back in July, 2003, three month after the war began (and just after Bush declared ‘mission accomplished’ – fool!) the then foreign minister (for the post-communist SLD government) Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz told the PAP news agency:

"We have never hidden our desire for Polish oil companies to finally have access to sources of commodities."

In January 2006, the then Polish prime minister, Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz said:

'Orlen [Poland’s largest oil refining company] should have oil deposits. And it will have them.' Asked if he meant Iraqi oil deposits, he added “Sure, those too.”

Mercenaries

I was on the (small) march in Warsaw against the war in the February before it began. It was a weird mixture of people. The usual anarchist types were there, accompanied by the usual dogs on bits of string. There were also grannies from the ultra-catholic Radio Maryja group.

Grannies and crusties, plus new Vice-Premier Andrzej Lepper, make up what is of the antiwar ‘movement’ here.

The banners accompanying the march read ‘No blood for oil’.

I always thought that was a simplification of the situation – I am against the war on principle, as I am for the right of self-determination, and against imperialism and foreign intervention in all its many forms. I also thought it would lead to the ‘balkanization’ of Iraq. I also thought that Iraqis would not be lining the streets waving little stars and stripes and union jacks as the brave American and British boys charged down the streets in tanks.

Looks like I was right. It’s been a disaster.

But the argument that the invasion was to get grubby hands on Iraqi oil certainly does work in Poland’s case. And that stinks. Reeks.

Polish governments never have got hold of oil deposits in any significant way, however. Oil production is still below what it was before the war and doesn’t look like improving anytime soon.

Poland has lost 19 lives in Iraq. That’s nothing compared to what Iraq has lost. But even 19 lives are way too high a price to pay for this mercenary adventure that has brought Poland nothing, accept a pat on the back from their American and British friends.

Shame on all of them.