US cancels handover of Najaf to Polish troops

[kskiska]

US forces have cancelled a planned withdrawal from the troubled Iraqi city of Najaf on the eve of its handover to Polish commanders.

Defence ministry sources in Warsaw confirmed that the city, 100 miles south of Baghdad, will remain under US command in the aftermath of the car bomb attack on Friday that left more than 100 dead.

America's decision not to hand over Najaf to Polish control will widen the split in public opinion about the war in one of America's staunchest European allies. Critics of the war have warned that a silent majority of Poles oppose military involvement in Iraq.

(snip)

Poland's mission in Iraq underlines the country's new status as capital of what the US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld controversially calls "new Europe" - a bloc of eastern European countries which have forged close links with Washington after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

But the price for standing by Washington could be more than the present Polish administration can afford, according to Professor Tadeusz Iwinski, the Polish Prime Minister Leszek Miller's senior foreign policy adviser and the chairman of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe's migration and refugee committee. "The mission is the most risky decision this government has taken. If there are major casualties it could lead to a parliamentary rebellion, an erosion of the government's majority and an end to this administration."

more…
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=439419

[Cheswick2.0]

1. I didn't know they were going to hand it over to Polish troops

Jeez.....give the whole thing to the UN guys, it is our only hope.

[Kbowe]

2. Does anyone out there really believe that Poland wants this "hand-off?"

Would you? Right now, Poland should be trying to disassociate itsself from the coalition. We have mucked up the world and the world is not going to take it anymore.

[Beetwasher]

3. Yup, this is spin. US didn't cancel, Poland doesn't want it!

We're calling for international troops and at the same time we're supposed to believe we're also turning them away? Hahahahahahah...

[smallprint]

4. hot potato! hot potato! who wants it?

not poland, that's for sure.

:crazy: