Armenian Peacemakers to Stay in Iraq for Another Year

PanARMENIAN.Net - Sikorsky's statement is quite unexpected, since till recently the Polish government was inclined to the withdrawal of Polish troops from Iraq. As it is known, former Polish president Alexander Kwasnewsky was for the gradual withdrawal of Polish military staff from Iraq. Thus, by the end of this year or at the worst at the beginning of the next year Kwasnewsky's government intended to withdraw the whole Polish military staff from Iraq, leaving there only a small group of instructors for training local soldiers. After the defeat of left social-democrats in parliamentary elections, the cabinet of ministers resigned. However, the position of the new government did not differ much from that of the previous government. Things changed after the October presidential elections won by Leh Kachinsky. Kachinsky, who during the election campaign avoided saying anything definite about the terms of final withdrawal of Polish troops, anyway decided to keep the military presence in Iraq. As for his opponent Donald Tousk, he still believes that Polish soldiers have nothing to do in Iraq. Announcing the decision to extend the period of Polish military mission, the Defense Minister did not mention any dates. "Maybe we'll need weeks, maybe months…", Sikorsky said. However, there are grounds to suppose that Polish soldiers will leave Iraq only together with Americans.
The revision of "Iraqi" politics of Warsaw will directly reflect upon us too. The agreement about the participation of Armenian militaries in peacemaking actions with the Polish division was signed in November 2004 for one year. The document has a separate point about the possibility of extending the terms of the agreement in case parties agree. If the decision of the previous government was put into practice and Polish troops left Iraq by the first quarter of 2006, we would not need to remember about that point. Our soldiers and officers would leave Iraq together with the Polish and Americans would not have any reason to be "offended" by Yerevan. That would be a good occasion to get rid of problems and save face at the same time. Now, we shall probably have to extend the contract. There are no alternatives to sending a new group of peacemakers to Iraq. Like the previous agreement, the renewed agreement will probably be signed for one year. Rotation of personnel will most likely start early in January.
The decision of Polish political leadership will hardly become popular in Poland, because during the period of participation in peacemaking operations the Polish troop has lost 17 soldiers and tens of people were seriously wounded. Armenian peacemakers are fortunately on safer positions, but it is clear that they are also vulnerable to dangerous incidents. Georgian military personnel is located on safe positions as well, however last week three Georgians were wounded as a result of the attack of terrorists. In spring a Georgian officer was seriously wounded and taken to a U.S. hospital were he was visited by George Bush. The wounded officer gave George Bush a bottle of red Georgian wine. Let us hope that Armenian soldiers will not have to give Armenian cognac to George Bush under such circumstances…