Poland, in Reversal, Keeps Forces in Iraq

By Judy Dempsey

Poland’s new conservative leadership said Tuesday that it would keep its troops in Iraq until the end of 2006, reversing a decision by the previous government to take them home in a few months.

The move provided a boost to the coalition forces in Iraq led by the United States and Britain, coming on a day when several countries announced troops reductions or the complete withdrawal of troops from Iraq.

“The government has decided to ask the president to extend the deployment of Polish military forces as part of the international forces in Iraq from January 1, 2006 until Dec. 31, 2006,” Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz said at a press conference after holding a special cabinet meeting. Lech Kaczynski, sworn in as president last week, must approve the government decision.

Marcinkiewicz, who leads a fragile minority government that relies on support from small nationalist parties, said the decision had been “a very difficult” one. It was influenced by the fact that the mandate of the United Nations had been extended for the whole of 2006 and that the Iraqi authorities had asked Poland to stay on, he added.

Eight days ago, Donald Rumsfeld, the U.S. defense secretary, said the number of U.S. combat troops in Iraq would be reduced by two brigades, or between 7,000 and 9,000 troops bringing the total number of American troops to below 138,000. Britain is also considering making reductions.

Ukraine brought home the last of its troops from Iraq on Tuesday. Its 1,650 troops had served under Polish command.

Bulgaria also withdrew its battalion of 334 soldiers. Like Poland, it also had strongly supported President George W. Bush’s decision to occupy Iraq. But after the deaths of 13 soldiers and 6 civilians, public opinion changed and demanded that the troops be withdrawn. Hungary withdrew its forces over a year ago.

Poland, a staunch ally of the United States that supported the war against Iraq from the beginning, had played a major role with the coalition forces, sending 1,800 troops to the country. Along with Spain, it shared the command of the multinational division in south-central Iraq in September 2003.

Spain, however, withdrew all its troops in March 2004 after the leader of the Socialist Party, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, was elected prime minister on a promise that he would end the country’s military involvement in Iraq.

Under some pressure at home, the leftist Polish government of Prime Minister Marek Belka and President Aleksander Kwasniewski, who ended his term as president last week, had agreed earlier this year to reduce the number of troops in 2005 and completely withdraw them from the mission by early 2006. It said, however, that it would continue to help the U.S.-led NATO military alliance train Iraqi military personnel.