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BTR 80 transports to the Iraqi Army. 38 This follows other deals previously negotiated that were worth about 236 million dollars in the supply of helicopters, weapons, ambulances, and fuel and water systems. 39 But these are relatively small investments in comparison to what one might expect. It might be more useful, therefore, to consider the transaction that has been called the “deal of the century” in Poland: the $3.5 billion purchase of 48 F-16 fighter planes from Lockheed Martin, 40 the biggest military purchase, since the end of the Cold War, by any postcommunist country. 41 This deal, signed on April 18, 2003, offers incredible terms, at least on paper. Not only is payment delayed for 8 years, at below interest rate expectations, and guaranteed by the US Congress, but it also provides offset payments to Poland. The terms of the deal assure that, over ten years, at least $6 billion in US investments would go to Poland, with estimates sometimes going up to $7.5 billion and $12 billion, depending on how one values the multiplier associated with the initial economic outlay. It’s not a simple win/win outcome, however, especially for Polish/European relations. Poland was also considering other planes for their purchase, planes made in the European Union, the Swedish-British Gripen jet and the French-made Mirage 2000. 42 Poland has paid for their American choice, with vary degrees of openness. Some speculate, for instance, that PSA Peugeot-Citroen chose Slovakia over Poland for the construction of a new factory as payback. 43 Sometimes it’s more explicit. President Chirac, on the occasion of the visit by Vice Minister and Minister of the Economy Jerzy Hausner to Paris on February 28, 2005, reminded him that he should buy Airbus rather than Boeing 787s when Poland considers adding six planes (a $500-700 million contract) to its commercial fleet in Polish Airlines (the government owns 68% of the stock in LOT). This, he implied, would help Poland overcome the damage that came from 19
uying the American fighter planes. And if they don’t buy Airbus, they could suffer when it comes to the European Union budget in 2007. 44 This whole public debate is misleading at one level. After all, the fighter jet deal is only one of many, and the only one, in one recent list, that went to an American firm rather than a European or Israeli firm, 45 but this particular aircraft deal strikes a chord because it is tied so closely to military alliances, and the perception that Poland is insufficiently European, and is rather a Trojan Horse, or even Trojan Donkey, for America in Europe. That perception has of course been heightened recently by the speculation that Poland hosted secret detention camps for prisoners taken in the American-led war on terrorism. Transatlantic and East/West European tensions grow, too, with this very uncertainty, leading European Union spokesman Frisco Roscam Abbing to warn that Poland would face sanctions if any breach of European treaty rules had been made. 46 Although we witnessed a major shift in the Polish political authorities with parliamentary and presidential elections in the fall of 2005, it is not obvious that there will be any major changes in this Polish/American alliance. Indeed, the new government announced that instead of bringing Polish troops home early in 2006, as the previous government intended, they would remain through the end of the year. 47 There are, nevertheless, many reasons why we should imagine such a shift: the Polish- American alliance has been developed at the cost of Poland’s European relationships; it has depended on muted discussion in the Polish public, distorting democracy’s vigor; it has cost 17 Polish lives 48 in a conflict most Poles don’t believe they should engage, 49 even one that violates Catholic sensibilities; 50 and finally, it is based on a quid pro quo that is increasingly perceived to be dubious at best. Poland still does not enjoy the visa situation its West European neighbors 20
Page 1 and 2: FROM TRANSITION TO HEGEMONY: EXTEND
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Page 11 and 12: ecame directly involved in military
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Page 27 and 28: are discussed in publics, and how t
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