Sadness and Anger

Saturday’s plane crash deaths of Poland’s President, First Lady, government and military leaders, and many others is a tragedy of epic proportions. Poles and Polish-Americans have held vigils and Masses in memory of the dead. In an age when the internet mirrors real life, the web sites of the Polish national government, the President, both houses of Parliament, the National Bank of Poland, and the Polish Embassy in Washington, DC, have all gone gray.

For such a significant event, the crash seems to have made little impression on most people I know. That is astonishing to me, considering the number of high-ranking officials on board, of which the following is only a partial list:

• Lech Kaczynski, President
• Maria Kaczynska, First Lady
• Andrzej Kremer, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs
• Jerzego Szmajdzinski, Vice-Marshal of the Sejm (lower chamber of Parliament)
• Przemyslaw Gosiewski, Deputy (member) of the Sejm
• Zbigniew Wassermann, Deputy of the Sejm
• Grzegorz Dolniak, Deputy of the Sejm
• Gen. Franciszek Gagor, Army Chief of Staff
• Aleksander Szczyglo, chief of the National Security Bureau
• Slawomir Skrzypek, governor of the National Bank of Poland

Imagine a similar plane crash that killed President and Mrs. Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and three other members of Congress, Deputy Secretary of State Jacob Lew (next in line to Secretary Hillary Clinton), a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the head of the National Security Council, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, and several other important military and political figures.

Some areas of the blogosphere have been abuzz with theories of Russian covert involvement in the crash. Neo-neocon is inclined to dismiss such thoughts, pointing out that “Even the Soviets could not have made the weather foggy.” Still, it doesn’t comfort me to know that Stalin-wannabe Vladimir Putin has pledged to take personal charge of the investigation. He hasn’t even seen fit to apologize on behalf of his country for the event the doomed leaders were headed to commemorate, Katyn Forest massacre. Why should anyone believe he will suddenly decide to do right by the Polish people with this investigation?