Poles in Afghanistan are warriors

Poland will increase its military presence in Afghanistan tenfold. Minister of National Defense Radoslaw Sikorski, who is in the United States as part of the delegation of Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, said: “There are 100 Polish troops in Afghanistan. In February 2007 their number will exceed 1000 people. They will be part of a mechanized battalion that will be stationed in Bagram province and will take part in operations in eastern Afghanistan.”

On September 11, the military leadership of the Alliance countries held an informal meeting in Brussels to discuss the issue of additional deployment of 2.5 thousand soldiers to Afghanistan. “The Taliban's resistance turned out to be stronger than expected,” said Dutch NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer. During a visit to Canada, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called on NATO countries to increase military contingents in Afghanistan. She warned that otherwise this country would fall apart. But France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Turkey and Belgium have not yet expressed such a desire. Poland is the first country to respond to the call of NATO and the United States. There are now about 40 thousand foreign soldiers in Afghanistan, more than half of them are Americans.

Victor VOLODIN