THIS is why the U.S. has taken sole responsibility for the defense of Europe since the early days of the Cold War.

The men who made this decision had experienced the Second World War personally. We had tried and failed to stay out of two successive European conflicts, at that point.
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Poland will look at gaining access to nuclear weapons and also ensure that every man undergoes military training, Prime Minister Donald Tusk told the parliament on Friday.

Tusk said that Poland "is talking seriously" with France about being protected by the French nuclear umbrella.
 
Tusk also stressed that Poland cannot restrict itself to conventional weapons.

He pointed to the example of Ukraine, which gave up its nuclear arsenal and is now being attacked by Russia.

He also talked about a massive upscaling of Poland's conventional military forces.

"By the end of the year, we want to have a model ready so that every adult male in Poland is trained for war, and so that this reserve is adequate for possible threats," Tusk said.

The Polish military is now about 200,000, which makes it the third-largest in NATO after the U.S. and Turkey.