You forgot Poland
"You forgot Poland" is a political slogan based on a statement by United States President George W. Bush concerning Poland's involvement in the Iraq War during the first presidential election debate on September 30, 2004.
Presidential debates
During the debate John Kerry accused Bush of failing to gain international support for the 2003 Invasion of Iraq, saying "... when we went in, there were three countries: Great Britain, Australia and the United States. That's not a grand coalition. We can do better." Bush replied by saying "Well, actually, he forgot Poland." The issue of "forgetting Poland" may have reminded some of President Gerald Ford's statement in a 1976 televised debate. Ford did not "believe that the Poles consider themselves dominated by the Soviet Union." This was widely regarded as a crucial gaffe.
Opinions
Paraphrased as "You forgot Poland", it became a popular catch phrase among Bush detractors. The phrase was used on bumper stickers, T-shirts and other merchandise. Some people found the phrase funny because they considered the Polish contribution to the 2003 invasion of Iraq insignificant or suspected that Polish troops were not actually part of the initial March 20 invasion force, as there was a formal announcement about Polish troops departing for Iraq on March 21. Others found it funny because they were of the opinion that it was a poor rebuttal to Kerry's original point (e.g., that Bush falsely claimed that over 40 nations were "supporting" the invasion, when the number of nations that had contributed over 1,000 troops was low; therefore even if Bush's statement was entirely accurate, four nations with large troop numbers on the ground as opposed to three was still nowhere near forty). Also, while George Bush is known for his often ambiguous remarks, his repartee's vocabulary lacked finesse as a rebuttal and seemed misplaced in a formal debate.
Polish involvement in the Iraq War
Whether Poland was part of the invading forces became subject to a debate about the actual timelines, but at the time Bush made the comment in 2004, Poland had made a contribution of troops to Iraq. Official American and Polish sources show that 184 soldiers from the elite Polish commando units GROM and Formoza participated in the March 2003 invasion, with combat being confirmed by the Polish government on March 24. By August, 2003, Poland had become one of the major partners of the multinational force in Iraq, with 2,500 soldiers in southern Iraq. This contribution placed them behind only the United States, United Kingdom, South Korea, and Italy in terms of the number of troops contributed.
European software patents
In late 2004, the European Union's patent law proposal, which had been criticized on the grounds that it essentially legalized software patents in the European Union, was halted by objections from Poland. In an intentional reference to the Bush quote, the slogan has also been used to describe this incident.
See also
- Full transcript of the presidential debate from Wikisource
- Bushism
- Polish contribution to the 2003 invasion of Iraq
- Military of Poland
- Internet humor