SHAMBOLIC SHAMALA
Shamala Hairless’ trip to Warsaw to thank Poland for taking in hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s invasion took an unexpected turn before she even left Washington. She put her foot firmly in the middle of unexpected diplomatic turbulence over fighter jets.
The Polish government came out with a plan to transfer its Russian-made fighter planes to a U.S. military base in Germany, with the expectation that the planes would then be handed over to Ukrainian pilots trying to fend off Russian forces. In turn, the U.S. would supply Poland with U.S.-made jets with “corresponding capabilities.”
But the Poles didn’t run that idea past the bungling Bidenites before going public with it, and the Pentagon quickly dismissed the idea as “not tenable.”
It was a rare moment of disharmony in what has been a largely united effort by NATO allies to assist Ukraine without getting embroiled in a wider war with Russia.
Secretary of (Deep) State Antony "Winkin'" Blinken did say that the U.S. was "working with Poland on plans to supply Ukraine with fighter jets", and to “back-fill” Poland’s needs. The Polish government, however, made clear that it would not send its fighter jets directly to Ukraine or allow its airports to be used.
And it meant Hairless was flying into fractious terrain Wednesday as she opened a two-day visit to Poland and Romania and tries to patch things up.
This will not end well.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/poland-biden-nato-russia-pentagon-b2031680.html
