What about Poland?

In August of 2008, the United States and Poland signed a deal to place a U.S. missile defense base just 115 miles from Russia, a move followed swiftly by a new warning from Moscow of a possible military response.

For many Poles, whose country has been a staunch U.S. ally, the accord represented what they believed would be a guarantee of safety for themselves in the face of a newly assertive Russia.

Negotiators sealed the deal against a backdrop of Russian military action in Georgia, a former Soviet republic turned U.S. ally, that has worried former Soviet satellites across eastern Europe. It prompted sharp rhetoric over the system, which it contends is aimed at Russia despite Washington's insistence the site is purely defensive.

During the Cold War, Poland was under Soviet rule by a puppet leader controlled by Moscow. Remember his name? President Wojciech Witold Jaruzelski. His presidency lasted a couple of years before it capitulated to the Solidarity union movement headed by Lech Wałęsa with the moral leadership of the future Pope John Paul II. The movement toppled Communist rule in the country in 1990. Walesa went on to become Poland’s president for five years, having earlier won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983 for founding Solidarity.

Poland became a member of NATO in 1999 along with the Czech Republic and Hungary. Poles then voted to join the European Union in a referendum in June 2003, with Poland becoming a full member in May of 2004.

So much for the recent history of Poland. However, will Poland be left out to dangle in the wind by the Obama administration? In February, Obama sent a secret letter to Russia’s president last month suggesting that he would back off deploying a new missile defense system in Eastern Europe if Moscow would help stop Iran from developing long-range weapons.

The letter to Russian President Medvedev was hand-delivered in Moscow by top administration officials three weeks ago. It said the United States would not need to proceed with the interceptor system, which has been vehemently opposed by Russia since it was proposed by the Bush administration, if Iran halted any efforts to build nuclear warheads and ballistic missiles.

The Poles placed great faith in the United States during the Bush administration. It took a huge risk trusting the U.S. to keep its word on the missile defense agreement. Now, that trust appears to have turned into a plea for continued support. However, the Obama administration appears to have other ideas, despite Secretary of State Clinton’s words recently: "As members of NATO, we take seriously our alliance commitments and I'm very confident that we will work through any issues that lie ahead -- on any front."

Poland wants the U.S. to honor its agreement to build a missile defense base in its country. Poland's president has said that scrapping the project to improve ties with Russia would be an unfriendly gesture toward Poland. In Brussels on March 22, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said that Poland took significant political risk signing a pact in August with the U.S. approving a missile defense system in the country.

"Russian generals, and even the Russian president, still continues to threaten us with the deployment of medium-range missiles in our immediate vicinity," he said. "So we signed with the previous administration. We patiently wait for the decision of the new administration and we hope we don't regret our trust in the United States."

So, what about Poland? Obama has been accused by conservatives of double-speak in other areas recently. The best line from the March 24th press conference, in reference to his who-knows-how-many trillions of dollars budget, was: “It's … a budget that leads to broad economic growth by moving from an era of borrow and spend to one where we save and invest.”

I fear for Poland and its being sold down the river in the name of diplomacy by an inexperienced and naïve President.