East Is Best

‘What’s the easiest way of gaining security and prosperity for our country?” ran the Communist-era joke in Poland. Answer: “Declare war on the United States, and hope that they invade and occupy.” Let us hope there is an Arabic version of this joke and that it’s being whispered in the coffee houses of Baghdad right now. It certainly helps to explain why the Central and East Europeans have generally expressed solidarity with America in its confrontation with Saddam Hussein.

That solidarity is especially remarkable for being shared not only by veteran anti-Communists but also by their former tormentors. In Poland, for example, the government is headed by Leszek Miller, once a member of the Politburo, now better known as one of eight signatories to the “New Europe” letter published in the Wall Street Journal in support of George W. Bush. Solidarity with America extends well beyond the ruling circles, too. To take just one case: A friend of mine was in Tehran recently, trying to explain to a multinational audience America’s reasons for invading Iraq. Amid the barrage of criticism that ensued, only the Ukrainian, Slovak, and Polish participants came to the Americans’ rescue. It is also no accident that the first German politician to break publicly with the policy of the Schroeder government was Angela Merkel, leader of the CDU (Christian Democratic Union) and an “ossie”—that is, someone who spent most of her adult life in East Germany.

RS

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Radek Sikorski

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‘What’s the easiest way of gaining security and prosperity for our country?” ran the Communist-era joke in Poland. Answer: “Declare war on the United States, and hope that they invade and occupy.” Let us hope there is an Arabic version of this joke and that it’s being whispered in the coffee houses of Baghdad right now. It certainly helps to explain why the Central and East Europeans have generally expressed solidarity with America in its confrontation with Saddam Hussein.

That solidarity is especially remarkable for being shared not only by veteran anti-Communists but also by their former tormentors. In Poland, for example, the government is headed by Leszek Miller, once a member of the Politburo, now better known as one of eight signatories to the “New Europe” letter published in the Wall Street Journal in support of George W. Bush. Solidarity with America extends well beyond the ruling circles, too. To take just one case: A friend of mine was in Tehran recently, trying to explain to a multinational audience America’s reasons for invading Iraq. Amid the barrage of criticism that ensued, only the Ukrainian, Slovak, and Polish participants came to the Americans’ rescue. It is also no accident that the first German politician to break publicly with the policy of the Schroeder government was Angela Merkel, leader of the CDU (Christian Democratic Union) and an “ossie”—that is, someone who spent most of her adult life in East Germany.