Polish politician and journalist Mariusz Olszewski told Sputnik Polska that the minister’s decision is likely related to the ongoing political struggle within the Law and Justice party ahead of the upcoming election.
"The relations between the President and the Defense Ministry directly fit into the unfavorable climate that currently exists within the Polish armed forces. We constantly deal with politics while what the army really needs is peace, work and modernization. There should be as little politics in the army as possible, and dragging army generals into complicated situations with the Supreme Commander or the President is simply unacceptable, to put it mildly," he said.
Olszewski also remarked that this policy, which does little to improve Poland’s domestic and external safety, should be put to an end as soon as possible, and currently the only person who can resolve the situation is Jarosław Kaczyński, chairman of the Law and Justice party.
Meanwhile, he remarked, Macierewicz's activity, which during the last year resulted in 26 top generals from various branches of the Polish military losing their positions, appears to be part of the minister’s method of running the army “using a crisis”.
"One needs to create an appearance of chaos in order to mask his inability to control an organism as big as the Polish army. All modernization programs were frozen. Everything that the Polish military needs the most – aircraft, helicopters, modern battle tanks, a way to create a true modern army comprised of trained soldiers and competent officers – always gets pushed into the background. Vital needs are constantly being supplanted by some secondary political antics which do a disservice to Poland," he explained.
Continuing with his 'chaos' reference, he reminded about Operation CHAOS, a domestic espionage program conducted by the CIA in 1960s and tasked with unmasking possible foreign influences on the student antiwar movement.
"The goal of Operation CHAOS was spying on a huge swath of American society. The operation affected 300,000 people and 7,000 personal files were compiled. But in the end, they got nothing. There was no conspiracy, though they were able to conduct that investigation. Now Operation CHAOS is being conducted on Polish soil," Olszewski concluded.
