Chief of the National Security Bureau (BBN) Jacek Siewiera, believes that Poland should be initiating a debate on mandatory military service. Nevertheless, he was sure to note that “running around with a rifle on the firing range” is definitely a less pressing part of the present army’s agenda. According to Siewiera, it would look to be more about “mandatory civic, public service.”
The BBN chief pointed out that in Western countries, the issue of conscription or mandatory military service is currently being discussed much more widely and intensively than in Poland.
“I don’t fully understand why this debate is so difficult for us,” Siewiera said on the YouTube channel This is IT. “It probably stems from the vision of the army we used to have, modeled after the Soviet one: violent, trampling of human rights, with discipline that didn’t serve order but the implementation of brutal customs like ‘hazing,’” he assessed.
In his opinion, today’s army is a place where various ambitions can be pursued, that being professional, scientific, and personal.
According to Siewiera, “running around with a rifle” is definitely a less pressing part of the army’s current needs. He also noted that in current conditions, those who engage in combat are most often the Special Forces soldiers, where one had to want to serve.
According to the BBN chief, the debate on mandatory military service should be broad, just like the service itself.
“Not mandatory military service, but mandatory civic, public service. A kind of performing of certain tasks and fulfilling them with the awareness that being a citizen is not just ‘taking’,” he emphasized.
In 2009, mandatory military service was suspended due to the transitioning to a professional army.
“I don’t fully understand why this debate is so difficult for us,” Siewiera said on the YouTube channel This is IT. “It probably stems from the vision of the army we used to have, modeled after the Soviet one: violent, trampling of human rights, with discipline that didn’t serve order but the implementation of brutal customs like ‘hazing,’” he assessed.
In his opinion, today’s army is a place where various ambitions can be pursued, that being professional, scientific, and personal.
According to Siewiera, “running around with a rifle” is definitely a less pressing part of the army’s current needs. He also noted that in current conditions, those who engage in combat are most often the Special Forces soldiers, where one had to want to serve.
According to the BBN chief, the debate on mandatory military service should be broad, just like the service itself.
“Not mandatory military service, but mandatory civic, public service. A kind of performing of certain tasks and fulfilling them with the awareness that being a citizen is not just ‘taking’,” he emphasized.
In 2009, mandatory military service was suspended due to the transitioning to a professional army.
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