Heavy stuff

I was initially planning on writing a post this weekend about the whirlwind of customer meetings and wine-chugging that Kevin and I have been through the last week here in Tbilisi (and that post is coming, because there's been some crazy activities going on here!). However, in light of the tragic news from Poland yesterday, I decided to write about that instead. The president, first lady, chief of staff, several cabinet members, along with almost every general in the Polish military were killed in a plane crash in Western Russia. In total 88 government officials lost their lives.

The list of countries that have unconditionally supported the US since the fall of the former eastern bloc is very short, and Poland is on top of that list. People may or may not have a grasp for this, but there is still a tremendous amount of Russian influence in that region and in my opinion, Russia may not really consider the cold war to truly be over. In fact, many could consider the Russian/Georgian war in 2008 to be related directly to their feeling that the US/NATO was extending their influence too far into the former "eastern bloc". Poland was the first country in that region to put there hands up and say "we're done with this communist BS and we're not going back." Since that time, they've been a shining star with regards to developing economically and moving away from corruption that seems to hold down many other countries in that region. On top of that, they've also never hesitated to send their best troops wherever the US has asked them to go. They are truly a great friend to our country.

They have a simply awful history of atrocities. Between the German's and the Russians in WW2, over 6 million Polish people were killed. That's 17% of their population that was completely wiped out, think about that for more than a second. In a tragic twist of irony, the plane that crashed yesterday was flying to Katyn in Russia to honor 25,000 Polish soldiers that were executed and buried in a mass grave. 25,o00 troops were killed by a country that was supposedly fighting on their side in that war. This was a war crime that the Russians had never taken responsibility for. The plane crashed 10km from the site of the mass grave.

Despite their awful history, they have persevered as a nation and kept their unique culture and nationalistic pride alive. I have no doubt that they will overcome this awful situation as well.

So, this post is completely all over the map, but anyways...Nastrovia Polska!