Poland is one of the biggest and most vocal backers for US/NATO intervention in Ukraine. They're also buying arms from S. Korea Everywhere in case the **** hits the fan in the coming years.
That's great. They have good reason to fear. They should invest in a large and capable military. Introducing tools of violence to children will (1) not help them if Russia invades and (2) may have undesirable knock-on effects on society like we've seen in the US. Leave national defense to the professionals. Especially in this current age, you don't need the great majority of your war effort to be trigger-pullers. Warfare is logistics, operations, and technical know-how. Their national defense will be better served by emphasizing STEM than by giving elementary school kids guns.
These aren't elementary aged kids. These are 13-14 year olds. Why wouldn't it help if Russia invades? It's about preparing the next generation of adults for potential war. To give them familiarity and skill with firearms. which they will need to defend their country. It's not about preparing these 14 year olds to fight the war as 14 year olds. What are the undesirable knock on effects? These are educational classes without live ammunition. The children aren't being given a gun and a box of ammo and sent into the street. This is structured and organized. Polands population is only 37 million compared to Russias 144 million. War most definitely still requires trigger pullers. Poland will absolutely need every soldier it can get it if it ends up in a war with Russia and those teens having firearms training and skills from a young age will clearly be a benefit to turning them into soldiers at 18-25 if the situation requires it. Having some training in firearms doesn't mean you cannot emphasize STEM. Children/teens/young adults can learn multiple skillsets at once. I recall having 7 subjects in a day in high school.
Russia wants no part of Poland. Poland is Ukraine on steroids. Russia is bogged down in a protracted war with Ukraine. Poland would be on the doorstep of the Kremlin in weeks.
I have plenty but don't the Ultra sensitive on this board to be offended. My best buddy is Mamed Eddie Kowczyk Same name as the lead singer of the group live. Also grew up with a Jim Kerr. Same name as lead singer of simply Red.
There is a trend the involves comparing countries on equal footing. A decade ago, there were those who endless talked about the great wonders of the European socialist solutions. A population that is well trained in fire arm usage and safety is going to do far better than say, a country who has very little restriction on gun ownership and almost no requirement for gun safety. I also don't understand the logic behind supporting the idea an unarmed and untrained population is better off than a trained population in the event of an invasion. A trained population also expedites the boot camp process in the event a country needs to raise the ranks of an army. But alas, there is a segment of the population who believe in the Shepherd/sheep philosophy. Sheep are too stupid to defend or think for themselves, so its best to leave the decisions to the authoritarians. Ironically enough, its always the sheep who think they are shepherds.
Just going by what the tweet said. As I already attempted to explain, modern warfare won't be won with expertise in small arms. They can only do so much against an army with air power, tanks, cruise missiles, cyber, etc. Feels like a projection of the American gun fantasy on Poland. I would fear that Poland would go the same way as the US. That they would develop the gun fetish we have and look to solve their myriad personal problems with gun violence. In a war, they would still need some trigger-pullers, sure. How long does it take to develop the skill of shooting a gun? How much is your future army really benefitting in this hypothetical from pre-training on small arms? Sure. Let's say the general thrust of my comments was that Americans have a fantasy that they can resist occupation by foreigners if only everyone was well-trained on firing a gun. It isn't true, but the fantasy has had a deleterious influence on our culture. It's the last thing I'd want to export to others.
Poland can now have school shootings too!! There is a fine line between education in firearms and fetishing guns, the US is clearly the latter.
Yea…. It’s called military training. You aren’t repelling Russia with small arms from random citizens…. That’s just typical gun nut fetish from the weak. Russia is the warmonger. I know you don’t want to believe it.
These guns don't even have ammunition... they use a laser simulation type system...clearly someone didn't read the article.... good grief.
These are your own hang ups and have nothing to do with the situation in Poland. It's perfectly sensible for Poland, a country under perpetual threat its entire existence, to expose its 13-14 to small arms training. Where you get this notion the wars of the future won't require those skills... Idk.. sure technology will advance but clearly that is a skillset that is still being used today and will be used in the near future. Your other notion these programs will somehow import the gun problems we have in this country into Poland... is pretty baseless... we are talking about guns kept and maintained at the school retrofitted to shoot lasers... with apparently zero access to guns or ammunition by these students outside of that context.
I was being tongue in cheek…. I see it triggered you. What will make Poland repel a Russian attack, since Russia has historically invaded and killed a lot of Polish, is a strong military. Go the Israel route of mandating military service.
Probably more accurate to describe it as an imitation of Russia where they are militarizing and training children on AK-47's in primary school these days. It's not so much about actual training but more instilling a Festung Europa type mindset in children at an early age so they are committed to fighting. Don't think it's great for the mental health of Poland, but logistically Ukraine and Poland basically have the same size population so no matter what a war with Russia would be the same type of numbers game. If there are 5 Russian minorities the Kremlin is willing to throw away in battle for every Pole... I think the saying is, "quantity has a quality of it's own."
Can you explain to me how the greatest military super power that has ever existed has lost nearly ever war in the last 50 years due to insurgency? This is silly. Poland has some of the strictest gun policies in the EU. Further, the gun polices are not that outrageous other than the right to a self defense weapon. You're comparing it to a country that practices capitalist gun sales. That is our countrys ultimate problem. This is where I dont understand you. You view yourself as a deep thinker but yet pretend you can take an 18 year old who has never fired a gun and put him in an active war zone 6 weeks later because he can 'shoot a gun'.... and expect him to live more than a month. Once a person is put in a position where bullets are flying over their head and if they don't have an instinctual knowledge of how to use their weapons, the chance of survival starts dropping quickly. This is why the Russians are losing massive amounts of troops.
Well in the real world...... Poland has an army (~290k) that would be first in line for combat....then they also have an army reserve (40k) which would be next inline. Is Ukraine holding off a stronger military because it's citizens had compulsory gun training from an early age? Of course not. Also why just stop at gun training for Polish youth?
How well prepared were those populations at the outset? Were they all growing up with guns or did they figure it out when they had to? Your point is taken, but there is also more to insurgency than shooting. I'll try to respond to the rest tomorrow.
