James Shotter reviews Radoslaw Sikorski’s new book. Political Observer comments

Mr. James Shotter presents a workman like review of Mr. Sikorski latest book. Mr. Sikorski has deep ties with a generation of Posh Boys like Osborne ,Cameron and Johnson as he attended Oxford University.

See Mr. Sikorski Wikipedia entry for the particulars :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rados%C5%82aw_Sikorski

His career as journalist was at notably conservative publications. What is missing from this ‘review’ is supplied by The Economist dated June 23, 2014:

Headline: Sikorski in hot water

Sub-headline: Radek Sikorski said in January in a private conversation that he viewed Poland’s alliance with America as “worthless”.

MORE illegal recordings are destabilising the Polish government this week. The juiciest revelation so far is that the foreign minister, Radek Sikorski (pictured), said in January that he viewed Poland’s alliance with America as “worthless”.

Mr Sikorski’s comments were made in a dinner conversation with the former finance minister, Jacek Rostowski, which was illegally recorded and printed in Wprost, a Polish news weekly. During the often vulgar conversation, Mr Sikorski said the alliance with Washington “is complete bullshit. We’ll get into a conflict with the Germans and the Russians and we’ll think that everything is super because we gave the Americans a blowjob. Losers. Complete losers.”

The conversation took place before Russia’s annexation of Crimea and its support for an armed rebellion in eastern Ukraine, which has prompted a noticeable warming in Poland-American security ties. Warsaw has also become more critical of Germany, as the German government has been reluctant to impose tough sanctions on Russia and is lukewarm about shifting NATO troops to central European states worried about the perceived Russian threat.

American officials stated in public that ties with Poland were not affected. “I’m not going to comment on alleged content of private conversations. As for our alliance, I think it’s strong,” tweeted Stephen Mull, the American ambassador in Warsaw. Mr Sikorski said the “government has been attacked by an organised group of criminals. We still don’t know who is behind this.” Polish law forbids the recording of a conversation without the knowledge of the participants.

Wprost did not say much about who made the recordings, writing only that they had been supplied by a “businessman” who dubbed himself “Patriot” when sending along an e-mail with a link to four recordings. Gazeta Wyborcza, a newspaper, reported that waiters at several exclusive Warsaw restaurants frequented by senior officials and businessmen may have been making recordings for about a year and then selling them back to those who had been bugged. The paper said the political recordings had been taken over by someone else.

https://www.economist.com/eastern-approaches/2014/06/23/sikorski-in-hot-water

The reader must also note that Mr. Sikorski is married to historian and journalist Anne Applebaum, a prominent New Cold Warrior.

Political Observer

https://www.ft.com/content/9939e514-2b90-11e9-88a4-c32129756dd8

 

About stephenkmacksd

Rootless cosmopolitan,down at heels intellectual;would be writer. 'Polemic is a discourse of conflict, whose effect depends on a delicate balance between the requirements of truth and the enticements of anger, the duty to argue and the zest to inflame. Its rhetoric allows, even enforces, a certain figurative licence. Like epitaphs in Johnson’s adage, it is not under oath.' https://www.lrb.co.uk/v15/n20/perry-anderson/diary
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