We Might Need To Forget Poland

In the past year, the outlook for Iraq has turned on its head. The "grand collation" that was invading Iraq never materialized. And the growing deaths have made the Iraq war even more of a problem. The other countries currently in Iraq are also feeling the pressure.

Poland, the one we shall never forget, has said that they want $600 million dollars in aid to there military which they said has been spent in Iraq. It is not official that they will pull-out of Iraq if the aid money is not given by the United States, but according to a Washington Post article, Poland "has made it clear that the two are linked, saying the $600 million it has spent on the Iraq operation has siphoned funds from plans to upgrade its own military."

This is coming at a time when the American people are starting to turn south on the issue of Iraq. On top of the mounting deaths, many countries have pulled out troops, leaving the US to do most of the work. And the Bush administration is hard pressed to find people who support the war internationally. And the lack of support is nothing but bad news. The President has spent almost all of his international political capital on Iraq, and thus, cannot get anything else accomplished on an international scale.

The US has lost both its capacity for hard power and lost all of the possible soft power that we once held. And Poland is just one byproduct of the Iraq war.