What is it like to have your proverbial arm twisted by Washington when it really wants something from your country? This by By Pawel Wronski of Poland’s Gazeta Wyborcza gives one a pretty good sense.
“In the negotiations over hosting the U.S. anti-missile base, the Americans are using all the same tricks they used when they were selling their F-16 aircraft to Poland in the late 1990s. I’m surprised that the politicians are falling for them again.”
“1. It’s a great honor for Poland; 2. New prospects for Polish industry and the opportunity to modernize the country; 3. Negotiations are running out of time; 5. Inviting influential politicians to the United States; 6. The argument that Poland is unprepared, unprofessional and doesn’t know what it wants.”
“The Americans are among the most effective negotiators. There’s a saying that the U.S. administration could sell igloos to Eskimos. Several years ago, Poland purchased F-16 aircraft. …U.S. lobbying was exceedingly effective. But the deal proved very favorable to Poland; the F-16 is a great aircraft and the value of the dollar is less than half it was since we signed the agreement. But the issue of the anti-missile shield is far too important from the point of view of Polish politics to leave purely to luck.”
By Pawe? Wro?ski
Translated By Marcin Wawrzy?czak
July 8, 2008
Poland – Gazeta Wyborcza – Original Article (Polish)
In the negotiations over hosting the U.S. anti-missile base, the Americans are using all the same tricks they used when they were selling their F-16 aircraft to Poland in the late 1990s. I’m surprised that the politicians are falling for them again.
1. It’s a great honor for Poland. Buying the F-16 or agreeing to host anti-missile shield installations in our nation means that we get to cooperate with the world’s greatest power! The initial drafts of the agreement simply thank Poland for accepting the honor of hosting the shield, without offering anything in return.
2. New prospects for Polish industry and the opportunity to modernize the country. Prior to the F-16 purchase, Lockheed Martin signed agreements with Polish defense plants, and U.S. officials pledged government-backed collaboration with Polish researchers and engineers. Nothing came out of that. Now we’ve again heard about major technology transfers and the development of Polish technical scholarship.
READ ON AT WORLDMEETS.US, along with continuing translated foreign press coverage of how the world percieves our nation.
