On Saturday, 17 October, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth addressed cadets at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and recalled his own National Guard service in Afghanistan. He said that of the roughly 50 countries contributing to NATO and the ISAF mission, perhaps five made a real contribution, and that near the end only one or two were engaged in combat operations. He also repeated a joke he had heard in the army, that ISAF stood for 'I Saw Americans Fighting'. Marshal of the Sejm Włodzimierz Czarzasty called the remarks scandalous and offensive to Polish soldiers.
On Tuesday, 20 October, before the cabinet meeting, Donald Tusk read out a text message from a woman who had served in Afghanistan. In it she described spending a year there, recalled the last Polish casualty of the mission, a non-commissioned officer whose wife was pregnant in Poland at the time, and said she had received an American medal for treating US troops with Polish medicines. Tusk said he wanted allies to hear the message.
“I would like these words to reach our allies, so that no one ever again disregards the effort of our soldiers.”
He added that he had expected the president to speak out on the matter and had been wrong to count on it.
On Sunday, 18 October, a drone carrying explosives entered Lithuanian airspace, and NATO fighter jets were scrambled. Pilots could not see the object or confirm it was an unmanned aircraft, so it was not shot down. Its wreckage was later found in Juodzioniai, in the Poswol area. Lithuanian authorities said it was a Ukrainian drone with explosives. Ukraine apologized and suggested the drone may have strayed off course because of Russian electronic warfare systems. Tusk said Poland does not allow operations on or over its territory without explicit Polish consent, and that this will not change regardless of who carries them out. He planned to discuss the incident with Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda that afternoon and said that, according to all data, the drone came from the Polish side.
Polish soldiers served in Afghanistan for almost 20 years, until 2021, and more than 33,000 Polish soldiers and military staff took part, with 44 Poles losing their lives. Reporting on the mission notes that more than 1,000 NATO soldiers died there, including 459 British soldiers, and that it was the only case of NATO invoking Article 5 on mutual defence. The conservative outlet wPolityce.pl framed the speech as public relations aimed at Washington and an attack on President Nawrocki.
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Poland's prime minister read a text from a woman who served in Afghanistan before the cabinet met on Tuesday, 20 October. He said he had expected President Karol Nawrocki to speak up after Pete Hegseth's remarks on allied troops.
AI text based on reports by wpolityce.pl, naTemat.pl, forsal.pl and other publishers. Published .