Several thousand Polish Border Guard officers, soldiers and police officers are present at the Polish border with Belarus. Since 1945, Poland has not had to mobilize such a large force to defend its borders.
While Poland has waged a successful defense against the aggression from the East up until now, this is only the beginning. No Polish politician should be facing any dilemma about whose side they are on in this conflict.
There are two choices: to support Lukashenko and Putin or to support the Polish government. There is no middle ground.
On Monday, we were witnesses to scenes which were predictable and about which we were warned by experts, government officials and some media outlets. The initial “crisis” in Usnarz was merely the prelude and even back then, that was obvious. At the time, some people mocked the temporary barbed wire which was quickly positioned on the border by the Polish army. Today, it turns out, that the temporary barrier has passed the test because, thanks to it, Poland’s soldiers were able to successfully stop the aggressors.
On the Belarusian side, in accordance with predictions, there are thousands of economic migrants who were chased to the border by Belarusian intelligence services. The assault at the border can be watched live as those “poor people”, on the verge of exhaustion, still have working smart phones and are doing live transmissions of their ongoing attempts to illegally break through into Poland. While organizing this whole operation, the Belarusian government took care of everything. Now, it is gathering even greater forces at the border.
Increasingly larger hordes of illegal migrants are approaching, and increasingly ostentatious attacks are being carried out against Polish officers and soldiers, all the while Belarusian services are behaving more and more brutally.
It is impossible not to notice that some of the Polish opposition is as eagerly waiting for gunshots and bloodshed on the border with Lukashenko’s services. After all, the Belarusian tyrant is well-aware that he will not win this battle, but the useful idiots/traitors in our country don’t even care about that. It’s as if they were ambivalent towards the result of this conflict. All they care about is whether this could weaken Law and Justice (PiS) in some way.
It will not. Today, by attacking Polish authorities, by conveying messages from Moscow and Minsk, by demanding the opening of the region near the border, and by pretending that we are dealing with a refugee crisis and harmless people who are begging us for help, the opposition is striking against Poland.
Poland today is personified by the boys and girls working tirelessly with the Border Guard, from the riot squads, from the military, and special forces. They are fulfilling their duty to their country. They went to defend the border, knowing full well about the risks. Not only are there illegal Middle Eastern migrants on the Belarusian side, there are also Belarusian army units equipped with firearms. The situation is a powder keg that our boys and girls are facing down as professionally as possible. Poles should be proud of them.
On the Polish-Belarusian border, the Polish state is passing the test. But every Pole is also being tested, as everyone’s stance in this conflict is vital.
Poland is being supported by the NATO Headquarters, the European Commission (which is looking into sanctions against airlines which took part in human trafficking), the US Department of State, the presidents of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Ukraine, and Georgia, the governments of Hungary, Slovenia, Czechia, the Netherlands, and even the head of the European People’s Party in the European Parliament Manfred Weber. Owing to the intervention of Polish diplomacy, Iraq’s government has begun to shut down Belarusian consulates to decrease the number of migrants in Belarus.
President Andrzej Duda also featured a post on social media in which he thanked the heads of state of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Georgia, and Ukraine along with the leader of the Belarusian opposition for their expressions of support and understanding for Polish actions on the Polish-Belarusian border.
It may seem that today, in face of an external threat, Poland can count more on a helpful hand from abroad than from parts of its own domestic political caste.
If the opposition wants to maintain any remnant of its honor, it should immediately support the government and state services on the border. For just one moment, it should stop weighing the costs and benefits and whether PiS will lose out.
For once, it should think about its homeland.
