Obama seeks Polish help on Arab uprisings

news.yahoo.com...

WARSAW, Poland – Seeking ways to support Arab uprisings, President Barack Obama is asking Polish leaders to use the lessons they learned during the fall of communism to aid fledgling democratic movements in the Middle East and North Africa.

Obama will meet Saturday with Poland's political leaders, as well as a democracy-building team that recently returned from Tunisia, where popular uprisings led to the overthrow of a longtime autocrat and sparked the protest movements that have swept throughout the region

In the Polish capital, Obama is making a direct comparison between Poland's overthrow of its communist regime and the movements happening in the Arab world.

I guess I can somewhat see the comparison between the "Arab Spring" and how Poland abandon the Soviet system. Both wanted a change in authoritorian government. (Im sure theres a better word for it but cant think of it at the moment).

But theres also the religion factor/different region this time in the Arab uprising. ex - Shiite vs Sunni, plus tribal differences.

Personally, I think we should just stay out of the issue. Didnt we (the west pretty much) pledge a few billion to the uprisings....even though we have our own problems?

G8 pledges $20 billion to foster Arab Spring

DEAUVILLE, France (Reuters) – The Group of Eight promised $20 billion in aid to Tunisia and Egypt on Friday and held out the prospect of billions more to foster the Arab Spring and the new democracies emerging from popular uprisings.

Yes, we did pledge alot...

Bizarre! Poland is majority practicing Catholic. We have a lot of Polish immigrants in the UK with the result that Catholic congregations have seen extraordinary growth with some Catholic churches offering Polish language services.

Some of the Poles are involved in ideological battles with Muslims in the UK with gang type conflict fairly common in some inner city areas.

Surely being 'advised' by Catholics would only agitate hardline Muslim factions in the ME?

reply to post by teapot

Bizarre!

Not really. One of Obama's teachers at university was Zbigniew Brzezinski. A Polish dude. He could have been the president of Poland but he chose not to. Security adviser to the US is a way better job description lol.

Remember the Polish presidential plane crashing with nearly the entire government on board? And after it crashed they pushed through missile "defense" systems, that the previous government would have never allowed?