Stardate 20020325.1502

(On Screen): I find that the most vocally patriotic Americans are its recent immigrants. Perhaps it's because those of us born here don't really understand what we have. When you have snuck out of a police state and left behind the dead bodies of loved ones, and then spent years to get permission to emigrate, perhaps the liberty and freedom means more to you. I would not be surprised to learn that naturalized citizens have a much higher voting rate than voters born here.

By the same token, I have been noticing that the attitude of the recent members of NATO is considerably different than that of those nations who have been in it for a long time. It is interesting that among the first (and most genuine) offers of military help by NATO members to the US came from Poland and the Czech Republic.

And now at a NATO meeting, the President of Poland has made a speech chastising the members of NATO for their excessive criticism of the US. I think I know why.

Simply by being a recent member of NATO, perhaps Poland's government values NATO more than do the more complacent governments in France and Germany. And I think that the President of Poland recognizes a serious and rising potential exists of the US pulling out of NATO. Given that the US is responsible for nearly twice the military expenditures of all other NATO members combined, it is clear that without the US, NATO would be far less important as a military alliance. It's not going too far to say that it would be virtually meaningless.

So the President of Poland is seeing beyond the short term value of anti-American rhetoric to the long term harm it can cause by killing NATO off entirely. I wonder if President Kwasniewski has ever heard the Joni Mitchell song which goes, "You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone." Surely he would recognize the sentiment.