Polish President Lech Kaczynski
The news that Polish President Lech Kaczynski and some of the country’s highest military and civilian leaders died on Saturday when the presidential plane crashed as it came in for a landing in thick fog in western Russia, was so big that it was hard to fully grasp at first.
From an American perspective, this would be like Air Force One going down with President Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, National Security Advisor Ret. Gen James L. Jones, U.S. Army Chief of Staff and member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. George W. Casey Jr., Chief of U.S. Naval Operations and member of the Joint Chiefs of staff Admiral Gary Roughead, Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force and member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Norton A. Schwartz, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Deputy Secretaries of State James Steinberg or Jacob J. Lew, President pro tempore Sen. Robert Byrd, Staff Director of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Martin Dannenfelse, and at least two presidential aides and three U.S. senators or U.S. representatives on board.
It would be almost too much to bear. I believe it would be devastating to our country to a level that September 11th couldn’t even reach.
I hope the United States reaches out to what’s left of the Polish government in a big way. They need all the help they can get now.
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this shows the great advantage of our wealth: no way AF1 gets close to such a circumstance. nor are forced to put so many key people on the same flight. the Poles do not have our huge resources, so are forced to put their most valuable leaders at risk on historically shaky airlines. a terrible tragedy for them.