Articles by Pawel Piotr Styrna
Will the Iranian Protests Unseat the Islamist Regime?
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley helped spread the message of the Iranian protesters by reading out many of the slogans/chants translated into English. Unfortunately, but predictably, both the Russians and the Western Europeans distanced themselves from the … Continue reading
Legacy of Courage, Hope, and Freedom
Monika Jabłońska’s Wind From Heaven is indispensable reading for anyone wishing to understand the thoughts and actions of the Polish-born Pontiff John Paul II. The book is not a biography in the strict sense. Rather, the author focuses on certain … Continue reading
One hundred Years After the Bolshevik Revolution
In part, this recharacterization of communism is a transparent attempt to shift the blame for the undeniable crimes and atrocities committed by the Reds from Marxism/socialism onto somebody/something else – preferably nationalism or anything that can be labelled right-wing. However, … Continue reading
Kurdistan After the Independence Referendum: Trump Must Act
The bottom line is that, for both moral and practical reasons, the United States simply cannot allow Baghdad, Ankara, and Tehran to crush the Kurds. And even if the three partitioning countries succeed, they should recognize that Kurdish aspirations will … Continue reading
Syria and Iraq After ISIS: Is an Independent Kurdistan in the Cards?
The Kurds have not only shown that they are capable of maintaining order and stability in their autonomous zones, but have also spilled their own blood to survive and defend themselves. Forcing the Kurds to return to Arab rule would … Continue reading
Tehran’s Proxy Terrorist War Against Israel
Taking out ISIS and helping protect our ally Israel from Tehran-backed proxy terrorist wars must both be part of a well-thought-out Middle East strategy. After all, eliminating the Caliphate will ultimately make Israel and our other allies in the region … Continue reading
President Trump’s Visit to Poland: Cementing the U.S.-Poland Alliance and Endorsing the Three Seas Initiative
Not surprisingly, following President Trump’s visit to Warsaw, the Polish government declared that it is no longer concerned about the U.S. President’s perceived friendliness with Putin’s Russia. Although none of these facts are likely to affect Trump’s detractors and their … Continue reading
The Stalinist-style Assault Against White House Aide Sebastian Gorka
What is telling about the fake-news scandal and pearl-clutching about Sebastian Gorka and his Vitézi Rend medal is the timing. He has been teaching, lecturing, and commenting on Jihadism and other threats for a long time, but he was attacked … Continue reading
Appeasing the Kremlin
Russia and Putin have been in the news a great deal in the past few months. Admittedly, many of the stories have been shrill and hysterical conspiracy theories about “Russian hacking” purveyed by Democrats still angry over the election results. … Continue reading
Reviving the V4 alternative in Central Europe
Many Western Europeans ask: Why antagonize Moscow, thereby sacrificing comfort and relatively cheap natural gas, by defending second-class Europeans? But the answer is that, together, the V4 countries have 64 million inhabitants, which puts them in the same ranks as … Continue reading
“Peace Through Strength” – the Realist and Reaganesque Essence of Trump’s Grand Strategy
Unlike his predecessor, and like President Reagan, President Trump undoubtedly believes in American exceptionalism and in standing behind our allies. Nevertheless, there is no question that he will pursue American national interests at the expense of universal or globalist visions … Continue reading
The People’s Mujahedin of Iran: A Most Undesirable Partner
Quite a few Iranian exiles are worried about the pro-MEK stance of some influential people in the Trump camp. The Crown Prince of Iran, Reza Pahlavi, has reached out to Donald Trump to congratulate him on his victory and to … Continue reading
“The Enemy of My Enemy is My Friend”: Obama, Syria, and Islamism
Apart from the loss of life and destruction, one of the tragedies of the Syraq war is that the Obama-led U.S. has pulled into the conflict on the side of the Sunni supremacists and Brotherhood-affiliates posing as freedom fighters. In this case, we must learn to think in terms of sober Realpolitik, and to acknowledge that ISIS toppling Assad is not in the U.S. interest. Continue reading
Post-Soviet hacking attack: A reminder of hostile cyber-security threats
America’s enemies continue to wage cyberwar against us and are, apparently, getting better at it. If our government is unwilling to fight back and shore up our cyber-defenses, the least it could do is not to make the job of hostile hackers based in Russia, China, the Islamic Republic of Iran, or any other unfriendly state any easier than it already is. Continue reading
The “New Proletariat” – Melania Trump and left-wing hypocrisy on immigration
Since the mid-nineteenth century, Marxists have attempted to use the workers – the “proletariat” – and take advantage of their grievances to seize power. As time went by, however, workers increasingly rejected class warfare, prompting the embittered neo-Marxist left to seek new ersatz “proletariats” (such as immigrants and other minorities). Continue reading
Greek Crisis, Russian Opportunity
Meanwhile, Putin has been rubbing his hands in glee at Europe’s misfortune. The Greek crisis offers a golden opportunity to subvert the West from within. It is also a welcome distraction diverting European (and even American) attention away from Moscow’s aggression against Ukraine and Putin’s plans to rebuild the Soviet empire. Continue reading
Recalling the Disaster of the Nazi-Soviet Pact – Part of a Long Geopolitical History
On the night of August 22-23, 1939, in Moscow, leaders of two of the most evil totalitarian regimes of the twentieth century – the Third German Reich and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics – signed the Nazi-Soviet Pact, also … Continue reading
Russia’s “besieged Kremlin” mentality: Déjà vu all over again
The main objective of the Putin propaganda machine’s “America wants to dismember Russia and overthrow her government” line is obvious: to turn the tables by turning the victims into aggressors and the invaders into victims.
Netanyahu’s warning to the West
Benjamin Netanyahu’s address was not only a warning but also a breath of fresh air. The Israeli leader is not afraid to recognize the evil of Islamism, unlike the Obama administration, which is unable to break with the warped post-modernist relativism that characterizes the radical left.
Twenty-five years after the fall of the Berlin Wall: A realist perspective
In the West, the “fall” of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 functions as a powerful symbol of the implosion of communism and the end of the Cold War; in Germany it is celebrated as the watershed initiating German reunification. The wall – which the East German communist propaganda apparatus called the “Anti-Fascist Protection Rampart” – was built by the Soviet puppet regime of the “German Democratic Republic” in 1961, primarily to halt the mass exodus of East Germans to the West. The wall was thus a reminder of the real nature of the communist bloc, which was essentially one giant Gulag – stretching from the heart of Europe all the way to the Sea of Japan – and that Marxist-Leninist regimes could not remain in power without terror, coercion, and intimidating border fortifications to prevent the slaves from “voting with their feet” and escaping from the “Socialist Paradise.”
Will NATO survive Russia’s aggressive challenge?
Viewed through the prism of Putin’s ultimate goal of collapsing NATO, the Kremlin had pursued the strategic goal of disintegrating NATO ever since its inception in 1949. Putin’s aggression against Ukraine is not only an attempt to re-subjugate a major ex-Soviet republic but is, simultaneously, also an experiment to test the West’s mettle.
Is it Time to Revisit Putin’s Role in the Smolensk Crash?
After the Smolensk plane crash, the speed with which the disaster became – not unlike Benghazi – relegated to “yesterday’s news” was stunning. An uninformed observer might conclude that what happened at Smolensk was but a minor incident…
Ukraine, Russia, and the EU: Between Scylla and Charybdis
Ukraine’s decision to forego the signing of a “free trade” agreement with the European Union in favor of the Russian-dominated Eurasian Customs Union came as a shock, but only to those who haven’t been paying attention to the larger geopolitical trends in Central and Eastern Europe. Not surprisingly, supporters of European “integration” are irked and disappointed by this admittedly significant setback to the EU’s…
Ignorance is bliss … especially in the Smolensk case
Ridicule is probably one of the oldest tools in the arsenal of political warfare. Making fun of an opponent serves to both undermine his credibility, and even to provoke him into angrily over-reacting. One method to discredit one’s political enemies is to mock them as “conspiracy theorists,” thereby implying that the targeted group is paranoid and psychologically unbalanced. Such a tactic requires little to no intellectual effort and allows one to conveniently avoid addressing the other side’s arguments.
The significance of Iranian President-Elect Hassan Rohani’s victory
The supposed “moderate” cleric, and former nuclear negotiator, Hassan Rohani, emerged as the winner of Iran’s sham presidential elections—held on June 14—with 50.7 percent of the vote.
How the West lost Czechoslovakia to the Communists
Could the United States and the West have saved Czechoslovakia from half a century of the communist yoke following the Second World War? Igor Lukes—the author of On the Edge of the Cold War: American Diplomats and Spies in Postwar … Continue reading
Post-Soviet Russia rattles its saber
Post-Soviet Russia is becoming increasingly brazen and provocative. In late April, the Russians and their Belarussian allies conducted war games right on the frontier of Poland (i.e. NATO) and rehearsed a potential war with that country.
The Eurasian Customs Union expands
The realization of Vladimir Putin’s “Eurasianist” agenda of reasserting Russian hegemony over the former Soviet Bloc has just scored a significant success. On May 31, the Central Asian post-Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan joined the Eurasian Customs Union (ECU) — consisting of Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan—while Ukraine acquired observer status in the Kremlin-dominated body. This article will focus on the latter country.
The Smolensk Report summarized: findings of the Macierewicz Commission
April 10, 2013 marked the third anniversary of the Katyn memorial flight that mysteriously crashed in Smolensk, Russia killing the President of Poland, his wife and 94 members of his pro-American government.
Cold civil war in Georgia and why it matters
Ever since Bidzina Ivanishvili’s Georgian Dream coalition won the parliamentary elections in October of last year, a kind of cold civil war has been raging in this South Caucasian country.
Russia’s aggressive war games threaten NATO borders
On April 22-24 the Russians and their Belarussian junior allies conducted war games right on the eastern border of Poland, which is also the eastern frontier of NATO. The successors of the Red Army—Russian airborne assault units and Belarussian special forces, to be more precise—rehearsed the scenario of a war with Poland on a military training ground in Brest, just across the river from the Polish-Belarussian border.
Smolensk: An inconvenient tragedy
Three years have passed since the suspicious Smolensk Plane Crash of April 10, 2010. During this time, new developments in the case occurred and evidence continued to surface. Most disturbingly, these findings have anything but dispelled doubts about the veracity of the official, FSB/KGB-manufactured Moscow-Warsaw “pilot error” line.
John Kerry’s first foreign trip: Much ado about nothing
On March 6, Barack Obama’s new Secretary of State, John Kerry—who succeeded Hillary Clinton as a result of the fallout following the terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi last September 11 — has returned home after an eleven-day nine-nation grand tour. During his first trip abroad as head of the Department of State, he visited the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar.
A former anti-communist dissident and the “clash of civilizations” in Poland
On November 23, 2012, in a grave miscarriage of justice, Polish parliamentarian and opposition politician, Antoni Macierewicz, was by a post-communist/left-liberal coalition in Poland’s lower chamber. What terrible offense did Mr. Macierewicz commit to warrant such punishment?
Georgian dream or post-Soviet nightmare?
On October 25, 2012, Bidzina Ivanishvili—the billionaire whose Georgian Dream coalition won the country’s parliamentary elections held on October 1—was confirmed as Georgia’s next prime minister.
A creeping post-communist coup in Poland?
The ruling post-communist/liberal establishment is rolling back freedom and civil rights in Poland. In October 2012, the UK-registered independent NGO, Fair Trials International (FTI), published a report with a disturbing conclusion.
The pro-Russian Party of Regions retains power in Ukraine
On November 12, 2012, the results of the Ukrainian parliamentary elections of October 28 were finalized and made public.
Katyn Declassified
On September 10, 2012, seventy-two years following the infamous Katyn Forest Massacre, the U.S. National Archives and Records announced the declassification of over 1,000 pages of records on the Soviet-perpetrated genocidal operation.
Anti-Saakashvili Forces Win the Georgian Parliamentary Elections
The Georgian parliamentary elections, held on October 1, were a victory for billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili’s opposition “Georgian Dream” (GD) coalition over the incumbent president Mikheil Saakashvili’s governing United National Movement (UNM).
The Kremlin’s Premeditated Aggression Against the Nation of Georgia
Four years ago, as the attention of so many was tuned to the Beijing Olympics, the Russians, under the Medvedev-Putin regime, invaded the former Soviet Republic of Georgia.
Mitt Romney’s Visit to Poland
On July 30 – 31, former Massachusetts governor and presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, visited Poland.
Obama’s “Polish Death Camp” Remark
Just when Poles and Americans of Polish descent may have felt that President Barack Obama was incapable of offending and disappointing them anymore than he already has, the incumbent once again proved them wrong.
The Dangers of American Decline
Is the United States declining, and if so, how is it manifesting itself? What are the causes of the decline? Further, what does that mean for America and, indeed, the world? Zbigniew Brzezinski’s latest book – Strategic Vision: America and the Crisis of Global Power – is a contribution to this debate.
The Smolensk Plane Crash Two Years Later: The Unraveling of a Cover-Up?
More than two years have now passed since the tragic Smolensk plane crash of April 10, 2010, which killed the Polish presidential couple, Lech and Maria Kaczyński, in addition to their entire entourage of Polish military and political leaders – 96 victims in all.
Poland to Loan $8 Billion to the IMF to Rescue the Euro
On April 19, the director of Poland’s central bank (National Bank of Poland, or NBP), Marek Belka, announced that Poland will loan $8 billion (6.27 billion Euros) from the bank’s currency reserves to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to bail out the Eurozone.
The Polish Presidency and the Future of the European Union
The Republic of Poland presided over the Council of the European Union from July 1 – December 31, 2011, after which it passed the torch to the Kingdom of Denmark.
Vladimir the Eternal? Russia in the Wake of the Presidential Election
In a rather unsurprising development, Vladimir Putin has been declared the winner of the Russian presidential contest of March 4.
Russia’s 2012 Presidential Election: Yet Another Term for Putin?
The next presidential election in post-Soviet Russia is scheduled for March 4, 2012. The roster of candidates Russian voters can choose from is rather limited, both in terms of the number of candidates and their backgrounds.
Case on the Smolensk Air Crash
On July 29, 2011 the Polish Government’s Commission to Investigate National Aviation Accidents, headed by Interior Minister Jerzy Miller (generally referred to as simply the “Miller Commission”), published its report on the tragic plane crash of April 10, 2010.
Poland’s EU Presidency
On 1 July 2011 the Republic of Poland assumed the Presidency of the European Union for the next six months. The institution is a rotating one, held previously by Viktor Orban’s Hungary.
Obama’s Visit to Poland
President Barack Obama’s 24-hour visit to the Central European nation of Poland on May 27-28 was part of a four-country tour of Europe that commenced in Ireland and the United Kingdom, followed by France, where he attended the G8 summit at Deauville.
