“People who don’t have foresight shouldn’t rule. It could also be related to deep Russian agents operating from within. She inspired the belief that one should disarm. And entire training grounds in Poland were sold out and our army could not practice. In the time of the PO, they wanted to get rid of contract soldiers,” says Bartosz Kownacki, former deputy defense minister, in an interview with the wPolityce.pl portal about the reasons for disarming the army before 2015.
wPolityce.pl: Today, on the Day of the Polish Army, it is worth asking a question about the importance of state security for politicians. Are the referendum questions, about the construction of a dam at the border and about immigrants, important from a state security point of view, or should they be boycotted, as the opposition says?
Bartosz Kownacki: Just as the opposition was not particularly involved in the Polish Armed Forces Day celebration, so is its attitude towards the joyful, beautiful Polish holiday. Today we celebrate the victory in the Polish-Bolshevik war, the Miracle on the Vistula. You can be proud of it. It is also a good opportunity to summarize what has been done for the Polish army. I have the impression that there was no opposition at these ceremonies, because it is impossible to be at the ceremonies, see Korean planes, Abrams, modern helicopters and then say that there is no such thing. Suppose we have an obsolete army. You can’t go against the facts.
The opposition also says that much of our equipment is outside our eastern border, in case Russia decides to attack us.
That’s what Russian trolls say. Old Soviet equipment was sent east. It was liquidated. For example, MI-24 helicopters. A very good helicopter of its time, a flying tank. I was just talking about him with the soldiers. However, modernization opportunities are coming to an end and we will no longer cooperate with the East, so handing over such equipment to Ukraine is so much better that if Ukraine did not stop this aggression, a Polish soldier would have to fight on this equipment. By sending him there, we buy time for ourselves and the Ukrainians, we stop the Russians with this equipment. And at the same time we import better, modern equipment from the west. We focus on Western technology, which is much more efficient than the old Soviet equipment. We don’t disarm anything. What we should be scrapping in a moment, we have handed over to the army, which must inflict as much damage as possible on the Russian side. That is, the side that currently poses the greatest threat, including for Poland.
The opposition also argues that PiS is only now sending more troops to the border with Belarus. Why?
On the eastern border, our opponents of the Civic Platform have liquidated military units. When Antoni Macierewicz moved the Leopards from west to east, they criticized it as an unnecessary move. It is Minister Błaszczak who is rebuilding the army on the eastern wall. It is a pity that these units have been liquidated for 25 years, but it is therefore only now that we have to correct these mistakes of the governments of the time.
The commanders of the Polish army at the time spoke of orders to disarm the army, which came from Brussels to the political decision-makers of the time. At that time, the European Union was dominated by pacifism and the atmosphere of disarming national armies. Russia attacked Georgia in 2007 and Ukraine in 2014. Why was the Polish army not rearmed at the time?
President Lech Kaczyński’s words of 15 years ago were ridiculed. Just as the words of Prime Minister Morawiecki and President Duda before the increased aggression against Ukraine were ridiculed over a year ago. And the rulers, having intelligence information, warned that Russia could attack. There could be two reasons for this state of affairs. Complete incompetence and stupidity, no foresight. And these are the characteristics that disqualify politicians. People who don’t have foresight shouldn’t rule. It could also be related to deep Russian agents operating from within. She inspired the belief that one should disarm. And entire training grounds in Poland were sold out and our army could not practice. In the time of the PO they wanted to get rid of contract soldiers. Soldiers serving on missions were required to leave the military and seek employment outside. They wanted to get the perfectly trained soldier out of the army. We’ve stopped. And I’m talking about facts.
Edyta Holdynska spoke
Source: wPolityce