Polish 'Dogs of War' to stay in Iraq

Cry 'Havoc!’, and let slip the dogs of war.
Julius Caesar: Act III, scene i

What do the State, Aliens and Tom Cruise have in common

The State tends to be a bit like an alien spaceship - the more you attack it, the stronger its' will and the more steadfast it becomes in pursuit of its' nemesis. Advocates of 'propaganda by deed' tactics discovered this over 100 years ago. Nowadays, we can see fictitious 'apocalyptic battles' between the 'goodies' and 'baddies' taking place in big budget Hollywood movies, from Star Trek to Independence Day or the War of the Worlds. And of course, those with the most gel in their hair and brownest tan usually win the fight to save humankind from nasty looking sub, meta, or non-humans. William Shatner, Will Smith, Tom Cruise, and ah, the Kaczynski twins, to name but a few. So how can we solve the question posed above? Answer: their strengths are superficial, while their weaknesses - once identified, can be successfully exploited.

But jokes aside, all these foreign omnipotent objects of violent freedom-haters tend to have an Achilles' heel. And super heroes like Kirk, Dr. Spock, Captain Steven Hiller, Ray Ferrier, Jaroslaw and Lech usually end up developing MacGyver-like innovative equivalents of a weapon sharp enough to pierce the evil terrorist space saucers' weakest points, consequently bringing them crashing down into the abyss of oblivion. And hence, happy days for us civilised people, and tough luck for them death-loving lefty alien terrorist swines!

Ok, enough of that shite and more to the point.

Polish establishment unite after attack in Baghdad

The Polish gvt. have been joined by their arch nemesis in the media, leading liberal-ish daily, linkGazeta Wyborcza, in calls for calm and resolve in the aftermath of the attack on the Polish ambassador, Polish General Edward Pietrzyk, and his convoy in Baghdad.
All indications prior to this event, where 2 people were killed, including one Polish security guard and over 14 others injured, were that the Polish presence in Iraq would be extended indefinitely.

This was also surely an important demand from the U.S. in their recent 4th round of negotiations with Poland on the planned U.S. Anti-Ballistic Missile Defence system, which will probably be constructed in northern Poland by 2012. The roadside bomb on the Polish convoy has hardened the faulty commitment of the current Polish administration to continue their collaboration with the U.S. in Iraq. And even if the Civic Platform opposition come to power with the help of the pseudo Leftist Alliance in the forthcoming elections, little if anything will change.

According to the Prime Minister, Jaroslaw Kaczynski:‘Desertion is always the worst option. It’s a solution which doesn’t bring anything positive, not to mention the moral side. Any embassy in Iraq could be attacked.’

Why is desertion always the worst option? It most certainly wasn't in Vietnam. And though Poland were part of an illegal invasion force that was post-hoc legitimised by the U.N., the disingenuous assertion by the Prime Minister that Poland are there for 'moral' purposes is quite frankly sickening and bullshit, while smothered with a gallon of cynicism.

So why the fuck is Poland in Iraq?

The reasons for their warmongering and sycophancy were and remain numerous - reassertion of strong political alliance with Washington D.C. while enjoying the fruits of an alliance with Brussels (In Ireland we say 'Dublin is closer to Boston than Brussels'); hope for lucrative financial benefits through attracting big multinational investments; desire to have their armed forces off their arses and doing something dangerously not worthwhile.

And then of course there are the comments made by previous Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz in 20006, which give a blunt insight into some of the prominent reasoning:‘Orlen (State oil company) should have oil deposits. And it will have them'

Asked if that would include Iraqi deposits and if that could happen this year, he remarked, respectively:‘For sure as well' and 'Possibly.’And despite the fact that 27 Poles have now perished in the Iraqi quagmire, while Polish soldiers have been responsible for countless deaths there - all in the name of an immoral and illegal invasion - the Law and Justice party, that purports to embody Catholic social dogma in it's political philosophy, continue to pronounce their intention in Iraq is 'moral'. Benedict XVI, will ya get up off your red slippers and forbid these fellows from communion on Sundays and leave the poor innocent homosexuals alone.

Bumar, Polish State owned Arms Company

Big boys and their war toys

Lest we forget, war is big business. The appointment of a former general as Polish ambassador 6 months ago was undoubtedly well thought out. Poland are desperate to expand their business interests in Iraq, and who better to see arms deals negotiated successfully than a general. As the Iraq News Monitor reported in May of this year:“Iraq needs weapons quickly. Once the {Iraq} government decides it wants something, it wants it right away,” says Mr Skowron (Polish State owned Bumar Arms company chief executive), who was in Iraq with Mr Szczyglo (Polish Minister of Defence) earlier this year.
linkBumar have already sold approximately $400m worth of weapons and equipment to Iraq in 2003. They have also signed contracts to train Iraqi Special Forces

The Iraq News Monitor continues: 'Warsaw has been disappointed with Iraqi contracts, a sore point because Poland was one of only four countries to take part in the initial invasion in 2003, and continues to maintain a military presence there despite widespread opposition in Poland.' Euphemisms for the 58 year old Polish General strategically turned envoy, Edward Pietrzyk, as Polish 'ambassador' and 'diplomat' are useful terms to hook the media into misleading the public from the truth and blindly leading Poles (who are against their country's presence in Iraq - 81% in recent polls, that is, but unfortunately this has had little impact on policy makers) into thinking their moral mission must not be 'deserted'........

Mercenaries, no more - no less!

Think Christopher Walken in the infamous film link 'Dogs of War.' Walken plays mercenary James Shannon who is captured and tortured while on a reconnaissance job to the African nation of Zangora. He returns soon after to lead a revolution and put in place a dicatator sympathetic to a British multinational.

Think Maggie Thatcher's mercenary son Mark and his dog of war SAS comrades in their failed attempt to stage a coup d'etat almost years ago in Equatorial Guinea to rob that country's oil resources. It is a country which, as the British Guardian newspaper reported after the coup plot was exposedlink, is oil rich, dirt poor. Neither the dogs of war nor the current dictator of Equatorial Guinea,Teodoro Obiang Nguema, who has been in power for 25 years, have the interest of ordinary people in their hearts or heads.

Think the notorious private security firmBlackwater which is currently been investigated by the FBI for random shootings of Iraqi civilians.........and try not to puke.

Think Edward Pietrzyk, his security guards and political masters.

All the above mentioned actors (apart from the Hollywood stars, of course) have one thing in common, 'Dogs of War.
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Is there any legitimate resistance in Iraq?

And despite my perspective of what they truly are in this drama, my heart goes out to the families of the deceased security guard and the Iraqi victim, and to all those injured in this attack.

Nevertheless, wind back 60 years to Warsaw, 1947. Were the occupying forces then a legitimate target in the eyes of the Home Army? If yes, it's hard to evade the logical conclusion that even though the historical circumstances are entirely different now, those who fought oppression and occupation in 20th century Poland are not all that different to the Iraqi resistance we don't receive much clarity about today. The resistance is boxed off as 'terrorist' - period.
But it just ain't that black and white ye all. It's not a case of, 'you're either with us or without us.'

The ones who don't kill little kiddies for breakfast, dinner and supper but target specific military, mercenary targets are the nationalist resistance. The other lunatics, well they're just wired to the moon!

We don't hear much of the legitimate resistance (permissible under International Law) because the lines are so blurred - the amount of paramilitary groups who only target occupation forces are vast compared to the terrorist groups that would even blow up your ham sandwich if they had a mini-second to plant a bomb in the butter!
And the fact that most media outlets don't stress that the differences between the various anti-occupation factions in Iraq are as extreme as those between Legia Warsaw and Wisła Kraków is testimony to the fact that we continue to view the situation in Iraq as black and white - just like Kaczynski, Bush, Brown, the European Commission, etc.

Epilogue

And just in case you thought all was doom and gloom from Iraq, think again. A little bit of good news came yesterday. Congress in the U.S. have voted that private security contractors can be legitimately held responsible in the U.S. for their misdeeds in Iraq and beyond. Associated Press report: 'The Democratic-led House of Representatives voted 389 to 30 in favor of expanding the US Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, to make all security contractors in conflict zones subject to action in US courts.'

About fucking time Senators!

So don't forget to harass you're local politician about the war whether he/she comes to your doorstep or if you meet him on the street in the lead up to the elections. They deserve it for not having the principle to resign from parliament 4 years ago, when the corrupt and morally redundant SLD kissed Bush's ass in 2003 by sending 2,500 soldiers to invade and occupy Iraq.