Civic Platform leader Donald Tusk, like Kaczynski, favors good relations with the United States. But Tusk argues Poland has not gotten enough from its close ties with Washington and he wants the country's 900-strong detachment in Iraq to come home soon.
"We've said that the mission should be completed in a very calm, responsible way," the party's parliamentary chief Bogdan Zdrojewski told The Associated Press.
He declined to give a date, saying "the decision will come once a government is formed" after parliament meets Nov. 5.
Civic Platform also says Poland should drive a tough bargain in return for hosting a missile defense base, which the U.S. wants to install as part of a shield offering some protection in Europe and beyond for long-range missiles launched from Iran.
The party says it supports hosting the missile defense installations, but has criticized Kaczynski for being too eager in public statements to strike a deal ahead of negotiations. Party leaders have said Poland also wants the U.S. Patriot short range and anti-aircraft missile system — which hasn't been part of the proposed system — to beef up its own national defenses.
U.S. plans to push ahead with missile defense installations in Poland and the Czech Republic have set it at odds with Russia, which views the shield as a step to undermine the deterrent value of its nuclear arsenal.
Zdrojewski, who visited missile defense sites in the United States with other Polish lawmakers earlier this year, said "there is no doubt the technology is of the highest order, and defensive, not offensive in nature."
While his desire to leave Iraq will no doubt be highlighted, he is pro-American. Though sadly pro-EU, too.
And in the shadow of the Bear, his problems with our proposed anti-missile bases in Eastern Europe revolve around their insufficiency to protect Poland.
And of course, in an area that had lacked democracy even before the decades of Soviet domination, it is good to see peaceful voting and power transitions.
