If we can't defend ourselves, no 1 else will

Sławomir Mentzen on X, 16 August 2024.

Military parades specified as this one, on the occasion of the Polish Army Day, are used, among another things, to convince everyone about the power of an army, its modern equipment and its readiness to win any war.

I would very much like to feel the pride of the Polish Army, I would like to have a sense of security, that we are so strong that no 1 will attack us, and if they do, our army will without problem defy this attack.

Unfortunately, subsequent governments only usage the military as a background to take pictures of themselves, to give high-profile speeches, to make promises and assurances about our strength, to inform about the acquisition of very costly abroad equipment, completely unaware of whether our army is fit to defend the country at all. deficiency of awareness about the real state of the Polish Army then leads to absurd statements about trampling Putin into the ground or to fantasies about sending Polish soldiers to Ukraine.

Unfortunately, there is increasing uncertainty that the possible war will not end for us even sooner than in September 1939.

The Minister of National Defence is simply a doctor, and the chief of general staff is simply a man who in his full life commanded at most a peculiar regiment.

We have immense problems with equipment and ammunition that are not curious in politicians who like to take pictures with costly abroad weapons. specified press conferences look good, PR agrees. Politicians have been talking for years about large plans to strengthen the military, about what we'll have someday. At this time, we are becoming weaker, we have less and less equipment, less reserves, less and less weapons production capabilities. We should develop, above all, national weapons production - above all the private one, so as not to gotta ask for weapons during the war.

Instead, we finance the arms manufacture in the USA and Korea, while at the same time leading to the collapse of Polish armaments. State factories are falling and systematically losing production capacity, and private companies due to excessive bureaucracy and deficiency of orders from the Polish army cannot develop.

Few people are besides curious that these 96 Apache helicopters, if there are no delays, will appear in 8 years. We've ordered F-35 aircraft 4 years ago, and the first 1 will strengthen our air force in 2 years. The equipment you ordered will show up in a fewer years, but you already gotta pay the advance. At the same time there is no money to cover the expenses essential here and now.

Our units have ammunition for a fewer days of combat, our yearly production of ammunition is besides adequate for a fewer days of war. We produce 30,000 artillery ammunition each year. The Russians consume 10,000 units a day, and during the offensive even 50,000 units. Our yearly production is adequate for 3 days. What's more, we just make this ammunition out of items purchased abroad. The Germans began to build an artillery mill capable of producing 200 000 pieces per year. Cost? Only EUR 200 million. We spent almost the same amount on laptops for 4th graders, so the ammunition mill wasn't adequate money.

Military parades specified as this one, on the occasion of the Polish Army Day, are used, among another things, to convince everyone about the power of an army, its modern equipment and its readiness to win any war.

I would very much like to feel the pride of the Polish Army, I would like to feel...

However, 1 of these problems has late been resolved. Tanks were sent to Ukraine, so the deficiency of ammunition for them was no longer relevant. But there is inactive a problem with the deficiency of even basic equipment like shoes, tents and sleeping bags. This should not be surprising, in the end a press conference against the background of purchased shoes or sleeping bags would look little awesome than the 1 on the background of helicopters, so why buy them?

And who will fight? The average age of Polish reservist is 50 years. There's no telling where these reservists live or if they'll always be on call. Which solves another problem, due to the fact that if they did, there wouldn't be uniforms and shoes for them, and they wouldn't be trained. Young people are not trained to be retired. We'll start training the reserves only erstwhile the war begins? We'll ask Putin to wait a year to get this over with? Or will we send to certain death completely untrained people?

There's nothing to discuss about shelters or civilian protection due to the fact that they're just gone.

There are besides no equipment, weapons, ammunition, training, equipment and reservists. What have we got? Happy politicians taking pictures of themselves against the background of costly abroad equipment, on which they spent tens of billions of PLN. We've wasted years. We don't have any more time. Donald Tusk said in the spring of that year that we were surviving in the pre-war era. The chief of the NSA says we have 3 years to prepare for a confrontation. This means that, according to the Prime Minister and the president who have access to secret reports and information, we may shortly face war. Unfortunately, it is hard to have the impression that our country is actually working towards preparing us for defence. alternatively of preparing for a possible defensive war, the PiS was preparing for a war with the Platform, and the Platform for a war with the PiS. In terms of the number of tanks or reserves, we have the weakest armed forces since the 1940s. And that's erstwhile the most armed forces we need.

You have ruled this country for 20 years. You are liable for Poland's readiness to defend. Let's get real. We want peace, so we gotta prepare for war. If we can't defend ourselves, no 1 else will.