Poland's prime minister said Wednesday that remarks by President Barack Obama erroneously identifying a Nazi death camp as Polish had hurt all Poles and he expected more from the US than "regret".
"I am convinced that our American friends can today allow themselves a stronger reaction than a simple expression of regret from the White House spokesman -- a reaction more inclined to eliminate once and for all these kinds of errors," Donald Tusk told reporters in Warsaw.
Obama on Tuesday mistakenly called a Nazi facility used to process Jews for execution as a "Polish death camp." The White House later said the president "misspoke" and expressed "regret".
Apologizing for pre-Obama policies is one thing, apologizing for what President Obama says--or does--is another.
Don't worry Poland, you're hardly the biggest ally we've stiff-armed.
After 3-1/2 years of appeasing enemies and stiff-arming allies, we've had little progress in making new friends and we're lucky we haven't lost our allies. Is this how "smart" diplomacy is supposed to work?
UPDATE: President Obama did the right thing and admitted the error while expressing regret for his unfortunate word choice. Poland is a solid ally, so good for him.
And while our government is writing letters, could the White House just tell the State Department to pipe down about the Falklands?
Our diplomacy smarts all right.
