Poland At Risk

I try to keep my blog light & frothy. It' s supposed to be for friends & family to keep abreast of our wacky misadventures and for the occasional musing. I figure there are enough sources of serious, depressing stuff out there and why should I waste time and energy when there are professional news sources?

But one recent news item has me really bothered and can't be ignored... Poland, land of my ancestors, was explicitly threatened with a nuclear strike by Russia for agreeing to host America's missile defense system. (A move they can hardly be blamed for given Russia's recent activity in Georgia and HISTORY.)

This is truly shocking. Poland has historically allied itself with the West despite the U.S & Britain shamefully leaving Poland to the Stalinist wolves after Polish aviators had saved London in WWII. Poland was & remains one of the most significant foreign contributors to the "Coalition of the Willing" in Iraq. ("He forgot Poland." - President Bush) And now they have, once again, laid themselves on the line and face NUCLEAR ANNIHILATION. From a recent issue of the Economist:

“We have crossed the Rubicon,” said the Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, as the deal was done. Russia said any country involved in America’s missile defences made itself a legitimate target for nuclear attack. Condoleezza Rice, the American secretary of state, who went to Poland to sign the deal this week, retorted that such threatening language “isn’t tolerable”.

Terrifying. What year is this?