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# Warsaw and Washington: after illusion
- URL: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/poland-end-of-illusion/
- Published: 2009-09-17T14:09:57.000Z
- Updated: 2019-02-14T23:02:23.000Z
- Author: Adam J Chmielewski
- Tags: #en, #Migrated, #Import 2026-04-09 20:08

The American administration has chosen 17 September 2009, the day of the anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939, to [announce](http://www.whitehouse.gov/the%5Fpress%5Foffice/Remarks-by-the-President-on-Strengthening-Missile-Defense-in-Europe/?ref=opendemocracy.net) that it is giving up on the (in any case stillborn) [anti-missile shield](http://www.cfr.org/publication/18792/?ref=opendemocracy.net) over Poland and the Czech Republic, which had been designed with the putative threat from Iran in mind.

Adam J Chmielewski is [professor](http://www.chmielewski.uni.wroc.pl/en/index.html?ref=opendemocracy.net) of philosophy in the Institute of Philosophy, University of Wrocław, Poland. His books *Open Society or Community?* (2001)  
  
Also by Adam J Chmielewski in **openDemocracy**:  
  
"[Europe's missing link](https://www.opendemocracy.net/democracy-europe%5Fconstitution/europe%5F2778.jsp)" (25 August 2005)In response to this it is worth recalling that when the United States sought it fit and [noble](http://us.macmillan.com/firstgreattriumph?ref=opendemocracy.net) to invade Philippines in 1898-99, President [William McKinley](http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/williammckinley/?ref=opendemocracy.net) justified this eventually homicidal step by saying that the Filipinos have to be "Christianised". When someone remarked that they are Catholics, McKinley is said to have responded: "That is why we have to Christianise them!"

In the view of the average level of historical knowledge of American presidents, I am not inclined to regard Barack Obama's abandonment of the missile-defence plans on this potent [anniversary](http://www.krakowpost.com/article/1575?ref=opendemocracy.net) as anything more than a coincidence, nor to hold it [against](http://wyborcza.pl/1,86871,6969565,Poland%5FWithout%5FMissile%5FDefence.html?ref=opendemocracy.net) the US president or his administration. After all, no American government has ever paid much attention to the easily [wounded](http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iWR-3rEXusvVBWlZ-74ZbnZbKlZAD9APNH680?ref=opendemocracy.net) feelings of people in Poland. George W Bush's leadership did not; there is no reason that anyone should expect such an attitude from Barack Obama's.

But this decision will be an excellent lesson in [geopolitics](http://www.ewi.info/ewi-threat-assessment-contributes-breakthrough-us-russia-ties?ref=opendemocracy.net) for the broadly (and often blindly) pro-American Polish population. The Soviet attack on 17 September 1939 - two weeks after the invasion by Nazi Germany from the west - has long been [ingrained](http://www.ipn.gov.pl/portal.php?serwis=en&dzial=23&id=211&search=4309&ref=opendemocracy.net) into Polish consciousness as a "knife in the back". Perhaps the US decision of 17 September 2009 will ever after be called a "knife in the chest". Moreover, this will be for better rather than for worse; for it may only help Poles to understand that they have no other geopolitical choice but to make friends with Germans and [Russians](https://www.opendemocracy.net/article/openrussia/russia-poland-and-the-history-wars) alike, and to abandon their own foolish policy of "two enemies".