President of the Republic of Poland Lech Kaczyński
President of the Czech Republic Václav Klaus
UNILATERAL:
Function: adjective
1 a : done or undertaken by one person or party b : of, relating to, or affecting one side of a subject : one-sided c : constituting or relating to a contract or engagement by which an express obligation to do or forbear is imposed on only one party.
Remember when the previous administration organized a "coalition of the willing" prior to the invasion of Iraq in 2003? The administration was accused, daily, of acting unilaterally in the invasion. The coalition, though, consisted of 49 nations. Of those 49, only four besides the United States contributed troops to the invasion force (United Kingdom, Australia, Denmark and POLAND). 33 nations provided troops to support the occupation after the invasion, and six of the 49 original members have no military. Such an operation does not constitute a unilateral action according to the above definition.
What does constitute a unilateral action, according to the definition, was the decision to renege on an agreement with a loyal ally (POLAND) to install a missile defense system in that country. The Czech Republic got the same treatment. As if we were trying to add insult to injury, the decision was announced on the 70th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland (September 17, 1939).
Whether this obvious capitulation to Russia, at the expense of two long-time loyal allies, produces any positive results will be interesting to see. The point is that nowhere have I read or heard any charges of unilateralism regarding our decision to unilaterally cancel an agreement that both Polish President Lech Kaczyński and Czech Republic President Václav Klaus thought was final.
