Against the background of mounting rumors of mass withdrawals of foreign troops from Iraq in 2006, the recent decision by official Warsaw to extend its troops' stay in Iraq up to the end of 2006 came as a bit of a surprise.

At the end of 2005 Bulgaria and Ukraine had completely pulled out their troops from Iraqi soil (save for a few dozen military instructors kept back to train local personnel). Also Hungary, Italy and many other countries announced their decision to pull their troops out of Iraq. Even the leader of the Iraq coalition – the US itself announced a forthcoming reduction of its Iraq contingent by 7,000-10.000 troops. US Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had to admit that Iraqi population want US and other foreign troops to leave their country as soon as possible.

In this context the decision of the new Polish authorities to reverse the earlier-announced pullout of Polish troops from Iraq looks a bit strange and gives rise to certain questions. As is known, the preceding leftist government of Poland had officially announced that a major part of the Polish contingent would be withdrawn from Iraq before the end of 2006. The decision was largely motivated by the growing unpopularity of the Iraq war in Polish society and by most Poles thinking it necessary to bring all Polish soldiers back home as soon as possible.

Notably, during the electoral campaign the former Polish opposition had also spoken in support of a pullout of Polish troops from Iraq. But soon after winning the election the new rightist cabinet headed by premier Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz announced that Polish "musketeers" had to stay on in Iraq. According to the premier, "it was a very hard decision to make, but we have taken into consideration, first, that the mandate of the UN stabilization force has been extended for the duration of 2006 and, second, that the Iraqi authorities have been insisting on our staying on in the country". Few people doubt that that decision will be approved by the new Polish president, Lech Kaczynski.

Formerly, Polish government had not only supported the US military intervention in Iraq, but had also taken a direct part in it, having sent its troops to Iraq. In September 2003 Poland was entrusted with heading the international peacekeeping force in Iraq's southern and central parts (the so-called Multinational Division "South-Center"). The 2,500 Polish soldiers and officers became one of the biggest, after the US and Great Britain, foreign contingents in that country.

During the Polish contingent's stay in Iraq it lost 13 servicemen. In addition, two Polish ex-servicemen hired by a private security firm and two journalists were killed. Despite the relatively low losses, Poland's participation in the occupation force in Iraq had never enjoyed wide popular support, while the number of Poles opposing the Iraq war has been steadily growing.

At present there are about 1,500 Polish troops stationed in Iraq. By March 2006 the contingent would have been trimmed down to 900 men. But now these plans may be revised "depending on the situation". Judging by declarations made by Polish Defense Ministry spokesmen, the Polish servicemen would mostly be engaged in the training of personnel for the new Iraqi army.

However, independent military specialists believe there is no need to keep such a relatively large contingent in Iraq for that purpose. At the same time, during his recent visit to Iraq the Polish premier said that it would take at least a year to hand the Polish sector over to the control of Iraqi governmental forces.

The decision to keep Polish troops in Iraq is largely of a political nature and is meant to demonstrate international support for the US effort in Iraq when that support is really waning. This has special importance to Washington whose Iraq policy has come under severe criticism not only on the international scene, but also inside the US itself.

Therefore, there is every reason to believe that the very idea of keeping Polish troops back in Iraq was born in Washington, then "strongly recommended" to Warsaw and finally publicly voiced through the "insistent requests" made by US stooges in Baghdad. By having promptly consented to these "requests", the Polish authorities have once again proved to be one of the most loyal, if not to say sycophant, allies of the US in Europe.