The limits of personal experience
President Obama never had a Polish friend, obviously. If he had, he would never have committed the gaffe of speaking of a "Polish" death camp in the context of Nazism. My friend bufo_viridis, the wisest and mildest of men, showed me long ago that there is no faster way to get a Pole mad - even one who has doubt about his country's victim mythology and no sympathy for extreme nationalism. And I can see what he means: it would be like calling the foibe where Tito's Yugoslav executioners disposed of the bodies of tens of thousands of Italians "Italian death caves". Not smart, Mr.President. And a word of warning: apologize without ifs or buts. Some of your supporters have shown a disposition to try and minimize the impact of your words or question their national significance. Don't. Just don't.