Thursday, May 31, 2012
Obama: “What? The Germans did all that?”
I spend a lot of time in Poland and occasionally have to address Polish concerns about how the US views Poland and the Holocaust. I usually begin by noting that I don't think most Americans are even conscious of the fact that Auschwitz is in Poland and, even if so aware, nobody in the US really associates the German Nazi atrocities with the Polish (I mean beyond the Polish being victims thereof).
Well, apparently, I am wrong.
Obama's 'Death Camp' Comment Angers Poles - WSJ.com
There is no real reason to expect Mr. Obama to be especially conversant in Poland's history but you really have to almost make a concerted effort to be as clueless about this country as the President has so far been. I was here in September 2009 when he chose the 70th Anniversary of the Russian invasion of Poland for the announcement of his disavowal of the Bush Administration's previously agreed-to missile defense shield. Dear Poland, Happy Soviet Invasion Day. Love, Uncle Sam.
Trust me, now as then, you don't have to know a lot of Polish to understand what the general consensus here is of this man's "brilliance".
