Polish involvement in the Iraq War
On March 17, 2003, then Polish President Aleksander Kwaśniewski announced that Poland would send about 2,000 troops to the Persian Gulf to take part in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Polish soldiers had been present in the region since July 2002 and combat was first confirmed on March 24. These formed the fourth of the larger military contributions to the forces arrayed against Iraq (with the United States, Great Britain and Australia).
The original Polish contingent contained:
In April 2005, Poland had 2,500 troops deployed in Iraq, and was also commanding a number of other coalition troops within the Polish-led Multinational Division Central-South.
International relations[edit]
In 2003, controversy erupted between Poland and France when Polish forces found French Roland surface-to-air missiles that the international press reported that Polish officers claimed had been manufactured in 2003. France pointed out that the latest Roland missiles were manufactured in the early 1990s and thus the manufacturing date was necessarily an error (it turned out it was probably the expiry date that was indicated), and affirmed that it had never sold weapons to Iraq in violation of the embargo. Investigations by the Polish authorities came to the conclusion that the persons responsible for the scandal were low level commanders; Wojskowe Służby Informacyjne, the Polish Army's intelligence service, had not verified their claims before they were leaked to the press.
The Foreign Minister of Poland, Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz, stated in July 2003, "We have never hidden our desire for Polish oil companies to finally have access to sources of commodities"[2] and was criticized for that by many fellow politicians and Polish popular opinion.