Poland’s decision to spurn the counsels of retreat and re-up for the war in Iraq deserves not only the applause of the Bush administration but tangible military assistance. The announcement was made yesterday by Poland’s new conservative president, Lech Kaczynski, on his second day in office. It was his first major foreign policy decision. He approved the maintenance in Iraq of up to 1,500 troops throughout 2006. These Polish troops help provide security to three Iraqi provinces and, while the numbers seem small, this is no minor commitment for a country like Poland that is still recovering from the nightmare of Nazi and Soviet occupation.

Poland has been with us in the fight in Iraq for several years. In 1991, during the first Gulf War, Polish secret agents saved the lives of several of our covert agents by spiriting them out of the country, and for 13 years, Poland represented American interests in Baghdad. This was no small risk for Poland’s diplomats. Poland’s Grom commando units stormed an oil platform and the port of Um Kasrr in the early days of the liberation of Iraq. Poland was then in charge of an international division of 26 nations stabilizing the central south zone of Iraq and providing security to 5 million Iraqis.

Now, after the Spaniards, the Dutch, the Ukrainians, and Bulgarians have left, Poland has emerged, along with Britain, as our staunchest ally in this fight. The question is whether the commitment by Poland is rewarded in a way that will enable the government in Warsaw to side with America in the future. Opting to go with us in Iraq, Poland faced the wrath of France and Germany, famously prompting President Chirac to tell the new democracies of central and Eastern Europe that, by signing a letter of support for America, they had passed up a good opportunity to keep quiet.

Poland’s operations in Iraq have cost it $600 million so far, or 10% of its annual defense budget, money that otherwise would have been spent on procurement of weapons and materiel to improve its military capability. So a solid ally like Poland is faced with the choice of either improving its capabilities or being helpful to America. It is true that Poland has its own reasons in Iraq; Spain and Britain have recently learned that al Qaeda is fully capable of striking in the heart of Europe. But it’s hard to imagine that Poland would have been a prime target had it not been helping us.

In Poland there is a perception of a lack of reciprocity. The joke is, “We buy F-16s and in return are allowed to fight in Iraq.” It’s a perverse kind of incentive system. One solution is to have NATO finance out-of-area operations from a common fund, to which all members contribute in proportion to their GDP. Another is for the U.S. to align its military assistance policy with its foreign policy goals and with the need to incent those allies who are actually helpful in the current war. Why are we sending Egypt a yearly tribute of $1.8 billion while we are offering Poland a handful of superannuated C-130s?

For a third of the money we ladle out to the anti-Semitic regime in Cairo, we could have a Polish expeditionary brigade eagerly giving a hand to their American colleagues – and not only in Iraq, but in other theaters and other emergencies. This is one of the proposals, for example, of Poland’s visionary new defense minister, Radek Sikorski, who presented this idea in his recent meeting with Secretary Rumsfeld. It strikes us as a no-brainer for the great defense secretary who taught so many the difference between Old Europe and New Europe.

More broadly, President Bush is fast approaching the point in this war where he needs to give public recognition of the fact that he comprehends who his friends are. He has done that handsomely with Britain and, to a degree, with Italy, though Italy is withdrawing while the Poles are still in the fight. We’d have long since begun moving American bases out of Germany and into Poland, which is eager to have them. It is hard, in any event, to think of a country that has been with us more steadfastly than Poland. It has just elected a new government that stood on the kinds of principles Mr. Bush stood on. Now is the time for Mr. Bush to show that he knows who his friends are and stands with them.