Military parades, like the one on August 15 for the Polish Armed Forces Day, serve among other things to convince everyone of the might of a given army, its modern equipment, and readiness to win any war.
I would very much like to feel proud of the Polish Armed Forces, to feel secure, that we are so strong that no one would attack us, and if they did, our army would repel the attack without any problem.
Unfortunately, successive governments use the military only as a backdrop for taking photos, delivering grand speeches, making promises and assurances about our strength, and announcing the purchase of very expensive foreign equipment, completely disregarding whether our army is at all fit for defending the country. Lack of awareness about the true state of the Polish Armed Forces then leads to absurd statements about trampling Putin into the ground or delusions about sending Polish soldiers to Ukraine.
Unfortunately, there are growing concerns that a potential war would end faster than in September 1939.
Our minister of national defense is a doctor, and the chief of the general staff is a person who in his entire life commanded at most a special regiment. We have huge problems with equipment and ammunition, which do not interest politicians who prefer to take photos with expensive foreign armaments. Politicians have been talking for years about grand plans to strengthen the military, about what we will have someday. In the meantime, we are getting weaker, we have less and less equipment, fewer reserves, and decreasing weapons production capabilities.
We should primarily develop domestic arms production — especially in the private sector — so we don’t have to ask anyone for weapons during a war. Instead, we finance the arms industry in the USA and Korea, while simultaneously causing the collapse of the Polish armaments industry.
State factories are failing and systematically losing production capabilities, and private companies cannot develop due to an excess of bureaucracy and a lack of orders from the Polish military.
Few also care that the 96 Apache helicopters, if there are no delays, will appear in eight years. We ordered the F-35 aircraft four years ago, and the first of them will only strengthen our air force in two years. Ordered equipment will appear in a few years, although deposits are due now. At the same time, there is no money to cover necessary expenses here and now.
Our units have ammunition for a few days of fighting, our annual ammunition production would also only last a few days of war. And who will fight? The average age of the Polish reservist is 50 years. It’s not known where these reservists live and whether they will even show up when called. We don’t train young people, counting on the elderly to defend us. We will start training reserves only when the war starts. Will we then ask Putin to wait a year for us to catch up? Or send completely untrained people to certain death?
There’s no point even raising the issue of shelters or civil defense because they simply don’t exist.
We have already wasted many years. We no longer have more time. Donald Tusk said this spring that we live in a pre-war era. The head of the National Security Bureau claims we have three years to prepare for confrontation. This means that according to the information available to the prime minister and president from secret reports, a war may soon await us. Unfortunately, it’s hard to get the impression that our state is really preparing. Instead of preparing for a potential defensive war, Law and Justice (PiS) was preparing for a war with Civic Platform (PO), and Civic Platform was preparing for a war with Law and Justice.
In terms of the number of tanks or reservists, we have the weakest armed forces since the 1940s. And yet we now need our armed forces the most.
PiS and PO have been governing this country, both of you, for 20 years. You bear the responsibility for Poland’s defensive readiness. Face reality. We want peace, so we must prepare for war. If we can’t defend ourselves, no one else will do it for us.
