Kraków 2014-11-10
Reorganization of the Polish Army. 2014 year.
Subjective assessment.
Under the rule of the Masonic-liberal Government of the Republic of Poland headed by Prime Minister Donald Tusk (who fled to Brussels after the mess he left behind in the Commonwealth), and for several weeks Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz (the coalition of the Civic Platform and the Polish People’s Party) has been systematically dismantling the Polish State and its subordination foreign systems. The disassembly does not bypass the Polish Army as well. It is no longer about reducing the quantity. Now there has been a fundamental change in the structures of the command of the Polish Army itself, and in the future it will be subordinated to a foreign army. Although it was not talked about loudly. The first official information about the prepared reform appeared in spring 2013. This topic was led by another weak Minister of National Defense, Tomasz Siemoniak. The same one whose first decision after taking office was to dismantle the 36th SPLT Okęcie in order to make it difficult to investigate the Smolensk attack.
According to official information – "The reform is to make the command system for times of peace and war identical. It is also to consolidate the command. " (April 24, 2013 Polish Radio statement by Tomasz Siemoniak).
There is no normal country in the world where the wax structures are identical in peacetime and war. In a time of war, each country’s national economy shifts to the needs of war. The mobilization of men and women is announced. Recruitment committees appear. Lazarets opens. We are collecting funds for armaments. The factories that produce food are starting to produce canned food with a long shelf life. Large-scale baking of rusks is launched. Factories sewing work clothes are starting to sew uniforms. The mills are starting to produce explosives. The automotive industry starts producing trucks. Etc., etc. Someone has to direct it, so the structure changes and grows.
In the second sentence, Mr. Tomasz Siemoniak talks about the consolidation of the command. Does this mean that so far the command has been dispersed? This is a bad testimony for the government that ruled Poland at that time for 6 years.
In order to introduce the reform without much resistance of the military themselves, already in May 2013, the President of the Republic of Poland, Bronisław Komorowski, handed the act of appointment to the Polish Army Chief of Staff to General Mieczysław Gocuł and appointed General Marek Tomaszycki as the operational commander of the armed forces. The Lieutenant General of the Polish Armed Forces Mieczysław Gocuł on October 1, 2010, became the First Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Polish Armed Forces. On April 23, 2013, the President of the Republic of Poland, Bronisław Komorowski, appointed him, on May 7, 2013, to the position of the Chief of the General Staff of the Polish Army. The former Chief of Staff of the Polish Army, General Mieczysław Cieniuch, was sent to Turkey as an ambassador.
On 17/12/2013, General Marek Tomaszycki at the Belweder Palace, the President of the Republic of Poland, Bronisław Komorowski, handed over the dismissal from the position of the Operational Commander of the Armed Forces and at the same time the act of appointment on 01/01/2014 as the Operational Commander of the Armed Forces.
The Act on Changes in the Polish Army was established by the Sejm on June 21, 2013, and was signed by President Bronisław Komorowski on July 22, 2013. This law eliminates the commanders of the Armed Forces. It creates two completely new institutions in their place, combines some commands, and at the same time leaves the types of the Armed Forces, explained the vice-chairman of the Parliamentary National Defense Committee Mariusz Antoni Kamiński. Pursuant to the act, the current command bodies have been merged into two strategic commands. The General Command of the Armed Forces will be established, which will combine the existing commands of the Land Forces, Air Forces, Navy and Special Forces, and are responsible for commanding troops in peacetime, and the Operational Command of the Armed Forces, responsible for operational command during wars and commanding troops assigned to participate in foreign peace-keeping missions. A new role was assigned to the General Staff of the Polish Army. Responsible today, incl. for maintaining combat and mobilization readiness in the Armed Forces or preparation for the operation of the command post of the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, will be transformed into an auxiliary body of the Minister of National Defense – becoming an advisory body to the Ministry of National Defense, the government and the President of the Republic of Poland.
The ruling coalition of the Civic Platform and the United People’s Party has always supported the bill. Law and Justice and SLD (Stronnictwo Ludowo-Demokratyczne) and other smaller right-wing parties were against it.
The opinion of the supporters. 2013 year.
Opinions about the need to change the command system and adapt it to the conditions in which aggressive joint operations with the participation of soldiers of various types of armed forces prevail, have been formulated for several years. In 2011. President Bronisław Komorowski talked about it, and Stanisław Koziej, the head of the National Security Bureau (BBN), pointed out that the overly dispersed command system and the concentration of planning, command and accounting functions in the General Staff of the Polish Armed Forces contributed to this, Note! the military aviation system failed, and after the CASA plane crash, the Smolensk crash took place. "
Minister Tomasz Siemoniak assessed that "the changes are very much needed, are in line with the constitution and create a transparent, good system. He also stressed that the reform was widely consulted. "
“I would like to assure you that the new structure will not lack a place for any good, ambitious officer. I am counting a lot on each of you serving in central institutions today. The armed forces need you, ”assured Minister Tomasz Siemoniak.
The aim of the reform is to consolidate the command system around three basic functions – strategic planning, ongoing general command and operational command. The command system is to be the same in times of peace and crisis or war. After the reform, the president, at the request of the prime minister, will be able to appoint a person expected to be the commander-in-chief during the war. (Maybe Prime Minister Donald Tusk will appoint Ms Angela Merkel, because the position held by the candidate and his competences has not been specified so far).
Cited Article 134 para. 3 of the Polish Constitution states that: “The President of the Republic shall appoint the Chief of the General Staff and commanders of the Armed Forces for a specified period. The duration of the term of office, the procedure and conditions for dismissal before its expiry shall be specified by law. Doubts as to the constitutionality of the provisions of the act were raised by the opposition already at the stage of work on the bill in the Sejm. Before the act was passed in June 2013, the Minister of National Defense, Tomasz Siemoniak, argued that the expert opinions ordered by the government ruled out its unconstitutionality. – “Expert opinions were drawn up by constitutionalists which ruled out the inconsistency of this draft with the Basic Law. Also, the relevant expertise of the Sejm Analysis Bureau, commissioned by the defense committee, also confirmed that the draft is in line with the Constitution. Of course, law is not an exact science, so we read other expert opinions which presented a different opinion, nevertheless, we are convinced that the project in the form it currently has is consistent with the Constitution "- said Tomasz Siemoniak. The head of the Ministry of National Defense also assessed that "the Constitution does not determine the system of the Armed Forces". – It mentions the Armed Forces in this matter, which concerns the act in this point, which refers to the competences of the President of the Republic as the head of the Armed Forces – explained Tomasz Siemoniak.
Despite serious comments about the possibility of chaos in the command of our Armed Forces, which could even lead to a temporary reduction in our country’s defense capabilities, the command reform is considered a great success by Bronisław Komorowski.
Opposition’s opinion. 2013 year.
The opposition party Law and Justice has appealed the bill to the Constitutional Tribunal.
As they argued, such a far-reaching reform cannot be introduced without changing the constitution, and moreover, it introduces chaos in the Polish Army.
According to the deputy head of the parliamentary defense committee, Mariusz Antoni Kamiński (PiS), he has two expert opinions that analyze whether the act complies with Art. 134 of the Constitution, which provides that "the president shall appoint the Chief of the General Staff and commanders of the armed forces. Two experts explicitly stated that the act was inconsistent with Art. 134 of the Constitution and that such a far-reaching reform cannot be carried out without changing the Constitution, ”emphasized Mariusz Kamiński.
In turn, Antoni Macierewicz (PiS) said that "Poland will prepare itself not to defend the country, but to function as in the case of commanding contingents. It is subordinating the defense of our territory to a completely different structure of operation. This is creating an expeditionary army that is not adapted to the threats Poland is facing, ”said Antoni Macierewicz.
As he emphasized, the issue of changes in the army is “so fundamental and fundamental that it must be dealt with in consultation between the coalition and the opposition. We wanted to talk about it, but the Civic Platform prefers the principle of domination and forcing its opinion, even if it is contrary to the constitution, ”added Antoni Macierewicz.
Prof. Mariusz Muszyński from the Faculty of Law and Administration of the UKSW in his analysis for PiS emphasizes that the act "eliminates the positions of commanders of various types of troops, and in their place appoints two positions as constitutional commanders of types of armed forces: General Commander of Kinds of Armed Forces and Operational Commander of Kinds of Armed Forces. As proposed, it is against the constitution, ”says Mariusz Muszyński.
He also notes that the solutions proposed in the act "weaken the essence of the position of the Chief of the General Staff by directly subordinating the newly created positions to the Minister of National Defense, bypassing the intermediation of the Chief of the General Staff, as the commander-in-chief of the army for the time of peace." It is also – according to prof. Mariusz Muszyński – is against the Constitution.
According to an expert from the UKSW, it is also inconsistent with the Basic Law to establish by the law "a person to be appointed in the future to the position of the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces for the time of war".
In turn, prof. Bogusław Banaszak from the University of Wrocław is of the opinion that it is inconsistent with Art. 134 of the Constitution are, inter alia, solutions that appoint only the General Commander of the Armed Forces Kinds and the Operational Commander of the Armed Forces Kinds. He also indicates that the reform of the chain of command cannot be introduced without amending the Constitution.
The act violates Art. 134 sec. 3 of the Polish Constitution. There is an unambiguous statement there that the President of the Republic of Poland appoints the commanders of the types of the Armed Forces, and this law eliminates the offices of the commanders of the types of the Armed Forces. Thus, the contradiction to the Constitution is obvious. We also point out that the President of the Republic of Poland, i.e. the guardian of the Constitution, who is responsible for the Armed Forces, initiates an act that is inconsistent with the Constitution and which introduces chaos in the Polish Army – said Mariusz Błaszczak, chairman of the PiS club.
Mariusz Kamiński argued that both President Bronisław Komorowski, as well as the head of the National Security Bureau, General Stanisław Koziej, and the Minister of National Defense, take enormous risks, strenuous in promoting an act inconsistent with the Constitution.
What changed? 2014 year.
From the beginning of 2014. (01/01/2014), in accordance with the amendment, the role of the General Staff of the Polish Armed Forces changed, the competences of the operational command were extended, and a joint general command was created in place of the commands of the armed forces. In place of four separate commands of types of armed forces, two combined commands were created – the general command, responsible for the preparation of the army for action and its functioning in peacetime, and the operational command, commanding (as at present) forces assigned to foreign missions, and, if necessary, taking command. in times of crisis or war. After the reform, the president, at the request of the prime minister, will be able to appoint a person expected to be the commander-in-chief during the war. The General Staff of the Polish Army is to deal only with planning the development of the army and advising the president, prime minister and minister of defense on defense matters.
Comment. 2014 year.
The act on changing the command structures in the Polish Army should be considered together with the act on "fraternal aid". According to the latter act, foreign services will be allowed to enter the territory of the supposedly sovereign Republic of Poland. "Such important decisions as the possibility of introducing foreign services into Poland, under the Constitution, should be agreed with the citizens in a referendum." This is what Polish citizens wrote when they asked President Bronisław Komorowski to veto the act. Nothing of the sort happened and the President signed the act. So, the Geraman police on the streets of Warsaw, foreign services at matches of the top league football, spies from the East freely crossing Polish borders. This is what Polish reality will soon look like.
The Act on the participation of foreign officers in operations in Poland was adopted by the Sejm on January 10, 2014. The controversial act concerns interventions in the event of a threat to public safety and public order. Foreign services would come to Poland at the request of the chief of police, border guards and fire brigades, if their stay did not exceed 90 days, and their number of officers would not exceed 200 people. If they were to stay longer, they would submit a request to the minister of internal affairs. The decision on the permit for such a stay would be made by the Council of Ministers. The Internal Security Agency was removed from the act, which is surprising considering that the initiators of the act talked a lot about combating terrorism.
The number of 200 officers and their 90-day stay is a sham. Each commandant can apply for 200 Germanic policemen, so this number is multiplied. 90 days of stay will be for a specific officer, so they can exchange. There is no way in the act – how will it be controlled? Additionally, the numbers are taken from the ceiling. Because why there is no question of 30 days and 100 officers. All over the world, any riot can be pacified within 14 days.
Just before the vote, Jarosław Zieliński (PiS) called for the bill to be rejected. He asked what the "fraternal aid law was for and what the government needed armed reinforcements from foreign countries for." The government is clearly afraid of mass events and democratic public gatherings. He is afraid of Poles and is ready to bring foreign forces to Poland and to give up the sovereignty of the state in order to stay in power, ”he assessed.
If we add to this, the lack of amendments to the Acts on Police Aviation and Border Guard Aviation, which are currently duplicating in many tasks and, as a result, are ineffective, we have a picture of a deliberately maintained chaos.
All this is aimed at limiting the sovereignty of the Republic of Poland and, in the future, with the establishment of Land Worth (Warta Region) and Страна Вислы (Country near the Vistula River). Royal Prussia, Western Pomerania and Silesia will be annexed.
I have to add to this the systematically worsening salaries of professional soldiers and the National Armed Forces. In addition, there is the issue of retirement of Polish soldiers from active service. The standard was that a soldier was promoted prior to his retirement. It was related to a higher salary on which the future retirement pension was calculated. In addition, there is a severance pay and an equivalent for unused leave, calculated from the higher position. And the Masonic-Liberal Government did not like it and the idea arose for a soldier to occupy this higher position for a minimum of 12 months, or to retire with the pension accrued from the previous position. Of course, this has been realized. The government of the Republic extended this principle to all uniformed services.
Colonel Marian Babuśka, chairman of the Convention of Deans of the Corps of Professional Officers of the Polish Army, pointed out that such a provision breached the assurances of Prime Minister Donald Tusk in a letter to the soldiers of June 25, 2010 that "they would leave under the current conditions". He assured that the deans’ convent would try – at the stage of parliamentary work – to change this provision. And once again Prime Minister Donald Tusk showed where he has Poles, because he is probably Germanized himself.
The current structure of the Polish Army. 2014 year.
Historically, it is Bronisław Komorowski who is the greatest advocate of such a reorganization of the Polish Army that no stone remains. Bronisław Komorowski, together with Janusz Onyszkiewicz, initiated the creation of the Krakow Military District, based in Krakow, which was to lead to a proportional deployment of our army. After several months, they withdrew from this program. And there was still chaos and total liquidation of combat units. The remaining military districts also disappeared.
A new concept of establishing the Land Forces Command and the Special Forces Command has emerged. Combat units were disbanded, but new commands were created. In addition, they were very "mobile", because they were located in a different city every now and then; Bydgoszcz, Warsaw, Krakow. Somehow, the Air Force Command survived. And now one of the goals of the reform is to reduce overly complex structures. And now the same arguments for decommissioning were cited for expansion a few years earlier.
On the other hand, in the Government of the Republic of Poland, no one is working on creating a coherent organization at all levels. Probably because you need specialists for this, and there are no such specialists in the government. There, no one knows that the Polish Army, like any army, requires one-man command and application of the principle, as much competence as responsibility. The new solution means that the role of a one-man commander is assigned to the civilian minister of defense, who is a dilettante in military matters; command, training, and logistics will not be able to grasp the base. On the other hand, two soldiers, in two commands – which of them is more important? – will be waiting for the minister’s decisions. This is already paralysis. It cannot be that one commander trains and plays troops and staffs, and the other, when this time comes, is to command during the war.
The developed structure is illegible, incomprehensible and does not fit into the logic of effective command. It was developed by civilians who so focused on civilian control of the military that they lost their sense of common sense.
The dismantling of the Air Force Command. December 31, 2013.
On December 17, 2013, the Air Force Command was disbanded in Warsaw. Air Force Commander, Brig. Gen. pil. Lech Majewski, said goodbye to the banner of this type of armed forces. He was deposited in the House of Tradition. During the ceremony, Lech Majewski thanked all soldiers and civilian employees of the command for their service and work. Gen. Lech Majewski presented outstanding soldiers and employees with medals awarded by the President of the Republic for many years of service and the medals "Armed Forces in the Service of the Homeland" and "For Merits to the Defense of the Country" awarded by the Minister of Defense. On December 19, 2013, the Navy Command was disbanded.
On December 17, 2013, General Lech Majewski in the Belweder Palace, from the hands of President Bronisław Komorowski, received the nomination for the position of the commander of the General Command. It was a reward for the general for "correct" actions in the subject of the Smolensk attack. His task as the commander of the General Command will be to train and prepare the army for peacetime operations. So in the event of a war, he will not be in command of the army. The army will be commanded by General Marek Tomaszycki, who, as the commander of the Operational Command of the Armed Forces, is now shifting papers on his desk.
What’s next?
Presumably, after the change of power in the Republic of Poland, another reform of the command structures will be carried out. And it does not mean that it will be a change for the better. Twenty-five years of transformations in the Republic of Poland indicate that the destruction of the Polish Army continued with a greater or lesser intensity. Admittedly, the current government in March 2014 made a bit of a pantsuit and panicked when the Moscow state annexed Crimea, and on July 17, 2014, comrade Vladimir Putin’s half-illiterate shot down a B-777 passenger plane, killing 298 innocent people. So as always – Time will tell.
Written by Karol Placha Hetman