Poland to pull out of Iraq in 2008, onto other foreign missions

When the Polish Liberal party won in October, one of the first decisions the new government took was to withdraw the country’s troops from Iraq by the end of this summer. The move has been approved by the president. That doesn’t mean Polish troops won’t be stationed around the world, on other foreign missions.

3,500 Polish troops are taking part in military missions around the world. Until very recently, by far the largest contingent was that in Iraq, where Poland had sent 2, 600 soldiers at the start of the US-led operation. Since then, the number of Polish troops there has been reduced to 900. They are to return home by the end of October. According to Aleksander Kaczorowski from the Polish edition of “Newsweek” magazine, Afghanistan is now the most important task to tackle:

“Especially if you see what’s going on in Pakistan after the death of Benazir Bhutto and possibly even civil war. It will have a huge impact on the situation in Afghanistan. We still have our troops there and will probably have more”

The Warsaw government has announced that the Polish contingent of 1,200 troops will be strengthened this year by an additional 400 soldiers.

Defence Minister Bogdan Klich said that Poland would like to take over sole responsibility for the Paktika province which borders with Pakistan, instead of having its troops scattered in several provinces. In this way the Polish national flag will be more.

“It would make more sense from the perspective of concrete effects of our presence in Afghanistan," said Klich. “Participation in military missions is only an instrument to achieve a certain aim. This aim is the increase in credibility of a given country in the international arena as well as to make it easier to achieve foreign policy goals. This country should benefit from such a mission in both long-term and short-term perspective.”

Poland is to contribute 350 troops to the EU mission in Chad. This is about ten percent of the entire contingent. The government’s decision on the Chad mission has provoked much criticism from the opposition.

“It would be good to have more information here,” says Jerzy Szmajdzinski, a former defence minister and leader of the Left and Democrats party. “What it is exactly that the Polish troops will be doing in Chad? Who are we going to be there wit, Whose orders will we take and who will we cooperate there with and who will be in charge of this operation?”

Military experts are unanimous, though, as to which foreign mission will be of particular importance for the Polish armed forces.

“Chad is important for the unity of the Union, to demonstrate that United Europe is able to do something military as a one single force,” explains Wojciech Łuczak of ‘Raport’ military magazine. “From the military point of view the most important is Afghan mission because this is very important proof of reliability of the Alliance. We are basing our security on the Alliance so this is also good and important for our security.”

The Polish mission in Afghanistan is to figure prominently on the agenda of the Polish defence minister’s visit to the United States later this month.

Along with speaking about his country’s foreign missions, he will also be talking about a missile defence plan that Washington hopes to set up against the threat of long-range missiles coming from Iran.

The plan involves installing ten interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar system in the Czech Republic. The previous Polish government had agreed in principle on the program, but the new government has indicated that it may not be quite as gung-ho.

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Tags foreign affairs, iraq, military, poland

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