American domination over Poland should be analysed on several levels. First, there is direct political and administrative control and this is not only about the sphere of intergovernmental and interallied arrangements. Working in the regional council years ago, I was surprised to learn that the American Embassy conducts regular briefings and teleconferences with the provincial governors, i.e. regional government representatives (in the rank corresponding to a deputy minister in the Polish system). Lower functionaries of the American diplomatic mission in Poland receive reports and issue direct orders to high- and middle-level Polish officials, managing straight on local matters, including elements of transport system, airports and highways construction, border crossing management, and of course public order and security. For Poles, such a positioning of a foreign Embassy, completely openly and officially above the structures of the state, evokes an unambiguous association with the period of the collapse of the Polish state in the 18th Century, when similar practices were typical for the ambassadors of the Russian, Prussian and Austrian empires. Even during Soviet period, control was more discreet and less ostentatious.
Slave to Love
That was quite similar with the presence of the Soviet Army in communist Poland. Unlike today with the Americans and their Polish supporters, the Soviets showed a certain degree of sensitivity and understanding for Polish feelings and national pride. Stationing of the Soviet Army was not exposed in any way. Practically, apart from the actual places of deployment, the Soviets were not visible at all, they functioned almost exclusively in their bases, and there was a censorship record in the media on these topics. It was kind a shameful affair, even for the Polish communists, who liked to present themselves as the lesser evil, also dissatisfied with the Soviet guests. No one has ever thought about celebrating the foreign troops presence in Poland, no joy parades were organised for this reason, children in schools were not asked to draw cheerful pictures expressing delight that we were occupied. And this is exactly what happens now, how we are obliged to react on the Americans, despite their activity is more than burdensome. G.I. Joes have caused hundreds of road accidents, provoked fights and argues in bars, harassed Polish women and still the only acceptable reaction should be constant joy and invoking “strategic Polish-American friendship”. The Soviets at least spared us this hypocrisy …
Untouchables
Obviously, American control over Poland, in particular, concerns strategic issues, not only military ones, but especially economic, including protection of the American corporations profits, especially in the media sector. American business has absolute priority, and of course also must be excluded from any regulations that the present right-wing government had promised to protect the Polish internal market. In reality, however, there can be no doubts that we are allowed to do that, and even simulated movements are met with a brutal American reaction. In such situations there are no picnics for children anymore, and the Polish President and Prime Minister are ruthlessly disciplined by American diplomats. Such a form of relations has been significantly aggravated during the presidency of Donald Trump, who clearly ordered a break with appearances and placed the so-called allies in the position of humble, subordinate supplicants, like the Polish President who was not even offered a chair during his visit to the White House or the president of Serbia seated like a schoolboy staying after. Insolence and arrogance, known from American practice in Latin America, the Baltic states and Romania, have already permanently set new diplomatic standards for American hegemony in Central and Eastern Europe.
Of course, US economic interests in Poland are not only about the media, but especially are related to the energy sector. For decades it was based on the hard coal mining and natural gas and oil import from Russia, while after costly transformations the main energy sources for Poland should be American and Qatari LPG, and finally also American nuclear power plants technology. This transition, of course, is associated with a sharp increase in the cost of living and inflation stimulated by rising energy prices.
Buffalo Soldiers
Finally, American dominance is primarily military. About 10,000 American soldiers are permanently stationed in Poland, and their number is expected to increase. It is also perfectly clear that in the event of an imminent threat, e.g. a full-scale Polish-Russian war, American forces will be immediately evacuated to the west, taking with them expensive equipment, and this retreat will be covered by a small Polish Army, additionally disarmed along with sending the greater part of operational armament and ammunition as an aid to Kiev.
An important aspect is also the use of Poles as agents of influence to sabotage any attempts of European emancipation. Polish politicians are supposed to disavow especially French and German initiatives which are not approved by Washington. It is no secret that the absurd idea of Warsaw demands of repairs from Berlin had the propaganda inspiration of some influential American circles interested in blackmailing Germany, although of course not in giving Poland real support, exactly the same as in the case of demands made against the Poles by the Holocaust industry. In turn, if the Western Europe were to slip out of American hands, the alternative could be to maintain tight control over the European geopolitical crash-area, from Finland through the Baltic Sea, Romania towards the Balkans. This American-European Union of the Beggars could be used to hinder the future normalisation of European-Russian relations, block the resumption of energy cooperation with Russia, and prevent the development of the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative.
The Fall of the Empire
And finally, we should notice the ideological, cultural and civilisation issues. The American hegemony likes to pretend to be fully ideologically transparent, according to the principle that there can only be one accepted and imposed system of values related to the concepts of globalised neoliberalism, such as Transgender, Climatism and the Woke counterculture. The American Embassy openly and noisily finances and promotes in Poland all initiatives derived from this source, deeply alien to the traditional, Christian and Slavic identity of Poles. At the same time, over 30-year dominance of Western Neoliberalism has an impact on the Polish consciousness. Deprived of access to other ideological and cultural circles, Poles, like other Europeans, are under the impression that “There Is No Alternative”. This makes Poland’s situation highly schizophrenic, while as a nation we are still driven by our Western complex, the ambition to catch up with developed Western economies, and at the same time we are unable to face our permanently peripheral position within the American World-System, nor to accept its ideological foundations, rightly still considered by the majority of Poles as alien, hostile and even disgusting.
The West, which generations of Poles have dreamed of, the West of Christianity, cathedrals, classical music, sovereignty of nation states and Fordist welfare, such the West no longer exists, or maybe it has always existed only in our imagination. Instead of the world of Charlemagne and the popes, Moliere and Goethe, Mozart and Chopin, Copernicus and Pasteur we have only the American occupation sector with all its tragic consequences.
Therefore, we must leave it as soon as possible.
Konrad Rękas