Here’s the Smartest President Ever® insulting yet another ally. Does the Democrat White House even bother to do any research? It’s really easy with this wonderful new invention call the Internet
(ABC News) Poles and Polish-Americans expressed outrage today at President Obama’s reference earlier to “a Polish death camp†— as opposed to a Nazi death camp in German-occupied Poland.
“The White House will apologize for this outrageous error,†Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski tweeted. Sikorski said that Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk “will make a statement in the morning. It’s a pity that this important ceremony was upstaged by ignorance and incompetence.â€
The president had been trying to honor a famous Pole, awarding a Presidential Medal of Freedom to Jan Karski, a resistance fighter who sneaked behind enemy lines to bear witness to the atrocities being committed against Jews. President Obama referred to him being smuggled “into the Warsaw ghetto and a Polish death camp to see for himself.â€
Sikorski also tonight tweeted a link to an Economist story noting that “few things annoy Poles more than being blamed for the crimes committed by the Nazi occupiers of their homeland. For many years, Polish media, diplomats and politicians have tried to persuade outsiders to stop using the phrase ‘Polish death camps’ as a shorthand description of Auschwitz and other exemplars of Nazi brutality and mass murder. Unfortunately this seems to have escaped BaracK Obama’s staff seem not to have noticed this.â€
Instead of just saying “sorry, we should not have put it that way”, the Smartest Administration Ever! decided to equivocate
(CBS News) National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said: “The president misspoke. He was referring to Nazi death camps in Poland. We regret this misstatement, which should not detract from the clear intention to honor Mr. Karski and those brave citizens who stood on the side of human dignity in the face of tyranny.”
Anxious to quell the controversy, the White House also noted that the president had visited the Warsaw Ghetto Memorial while in Poland and that he has repeatedly discussed the bravery of Poles during World War II.
How about just saying “whoops, we goofed, and we apologize”? Would that be so difficult? Instead, Obama can’t even admit he was wrong, and instead attempts to say “but, hey, I’ve spoken nicely about Poles once or twice.” And let’s not forget he hit Poland with his extra-large (made in Canada) bus over missile shield defense before.
Yes, we all know what Obama meant, but, words have meaning, and it is sometimes not what you say, but how you say it.
Buzzfeed features lots of leading Polish politicians expressing outrage, including
Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski, a longtime pro-American voice, tweeted: “The White House will apologize for this outrageous error. [Prime Minister Donald] Tusk will make a statement in the morning. It’s a pity that this important ceremony was upstaged by ignorance and incompetence.”
We’re used to it, FM Sikorski. We’re sorry you had to be pulled into our world.
Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU.
