Thomas Friedman has found that rarest of spots on this earth,a place where America, and Americans, are not dirty words. Believe it or not, it's Poland, the butt of too many bad jokes over the decades. This is not surprising to me, I have always had a fondness for all things Polish. My only son is half Polish; his mother is 100 percent a daughter of Poland. But this isn't about me and Poland, it's about Poland and America. Let Mr. Friedman tell you all about it.
I found the cure to anti-Americanism: Come to Poland.
After two years of traveling almost exclusively to Western Europe and the Middle East, Poland feels like a geopolitical spa. I visited here for just three days and got two years of anti-American bruises massaged out of me. Get this: people here actually tell you they like America — without whispering. What has gotten into these people? Have all their subscriptions to Le Monde Diplomatique expired? Haven't they gotten the word from Berlin and Paris? No, they haven't. In fact, Poland is the antidote to European anti-Americanism. Poland is to France what Advil is to a pain in the neck. Or as Michael Mandelbaum, the Johns Hopkins foreign affairs specialist, remarked after visiting Poland: "Poland is the most pro-American country in the world — including the United States."
