huju, veterans I talked to differ on the value of going and staying in Afghanistan, but are united in their opinion on what happened recently.
Ctlawyer, I think your feelings are justified but they do not reflect the whole truth. Poles as a country did not collaborate, they were fighting against two cruel superpowers. They were a little deluded between the wars, Jews included. Jewish memoirs report that Jews expected that Polish cavalry will push the Germans back and were SHOCKED that the airplanes over Warsaw turned out to be German and not Polish… Read about Jews and Poles evacuated from USSR during WW2 via Iran: while Poles did favor the ethnic Poles, they organized help for Jews also.
I am not saying that Solidarity per se achieved something, but they were pushing against the Soviets more than anyone else. Soviet dissidents, including Jews, were bravely doing interviews with BBC and hunger strikes in prison , Poles were taking over cities. I know it is always