The Dec. 12 editorial "Away from freedom" and Anne Applebaum's PostPartisan blog excerpt, "The Polish government latches on to 'fake news,' " argued for a more vociferous U.S. critique of Poland's embrace of "anti-democratic" measures against judicial independence and independent media.

But don't expect more vocal criticism from Washington, let alone downgraded bilateral relations as with Viktor Orban's Hungary — for two reasons. First, President Trump is unconcerned about democratic checks and balances and labels much of the media "fake news." He is much more interested in cutting business deals with any foreign country regardless of political or ideological orientation. Under its 10-year, $36 billion military-modernization program, Poland has become the Saudi Arabia on the eastern flank of NATO because of its massive purchase of advanced American military equipment, including missile defense systems and aircraft.

Second, under A. Wess Mitchell, the new assistant secretary of state in charge of the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, a policy shift is expected to take place toward a more security-focused cooperation with Central and Eastern Europe. His 2016 book, "The Unquiet Frontier" (co-written with Jakub J. Grygiel), argues that the United States should take "a less publicly critical stance of states underperforming in democratic governance in order to advance pragmatic security cooperation against Russia. Democratic values continue to matter, but security must come first. . . . All other policy objectives are secondary." This must be music to Polish leaders' ears given their country's central role on NATO's eastern front as an anti-Russian bulwark.

Istvan Dobozi, Gaithersburg