Arab Times

Poles ‘take up’ military training

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WARSAW, Poland, April 6, (AP): NATO aircraft scream across eastern European skies and American armored vehicles rumble near the border with Russia on a mission to reassure citizens that they’re safe from Russian aggression.

But these days, ordinary people aren’t taking any chances. In Poland, doctors, shopkeeper­s, lawmakers and others are heeding a call to receive military training in case of an invasion. Neighborin­g Lithuania is restoring the draft and teaching citizens what to do in case of war. Nearby Latvia has plans to give university students military training next year.

The drive to teach ordinary people how to use weapons and take cover under fire reflects soaring anxiety among people in a region where memories of Moscow’s domination — which ended only in the 1990s — remain raw. People worry that their security and hardwon independen­ce are threatened as saber-rattling intensifie­s between the West and Russia over the conflict in Ukraine, where more than 6,000 people have died.

In Poland, the oldest generation remembers the Soviet Army’s invasion in 1939, at the start of World War II. Younger people remain traumatize­d by the repression of the communist regime that lasted more than four decades.

It’s a danger felt across the EU newcomer states that border Russia.

“There’s a real feeling of threat in our society,” Latvian defense ministry spokeswoma­n Aija Jakubovska told The Associated Press. Military training for students is a “way we can increase our own defense capabiliti­es.”

Most people are still looking to NATO’s military umbrella as their main guarantor of security. Zygmunt Wos waved goodbye to a detachment of US armored vehicles leaving the eastern Polish city of Bialystok with apprehensi­on: “These troops should be staying with us,” he said, “not going back to Germany.”

Poland has been at the forefront of warnings about the dangers of the Ukraine conflict. Just 17 hours by car from the battle zone, Poland has stepped up efforts to upgrade its weapons arsenal, including a possible purchase of US-made Tomahawk missiles. It will host a total of some 10,000 NATO and other allied troops for exercises this year. Its profession­al army is 100,000-strong, and 20,000 reservists are slated for testrange training.

Grassroots

It’s the grassroots mobilizati­on, however, that best demonstrat­es the fears: The government has reached out to some 120 paramilita­ry groups with tens of thousands of members, who are conducting their own drills, in an effort to streamline them with the army exercises.

In an unpreceden­ted appeal, Parliament Speaker Radek Sikorski urged lawmakers to train at a test range in May, while Defense Minister Tomasz Siemoniak called on men and women aged between 18 and 50, and with no military experience, to sign up for test-range exercise. So far, over 2,000 people have responded.

“The times are dangerous and we must do all we can to raise Poland’s ability to defend its territory,” President Bronislaw Komorowski said during a recent visit to a military unit.

The Poles believe they have grounds for feeling particular­ly vulnerable because they have been invaded by Russia repeatedly since the 18th century. Russian leader Vladimir Putin seems to have singled out Poland, a staunch US ally, as a prime enemy in the struggle over Ukraine, accusing it of training “Ukrainian nationalis­ts” and instigatin­g unrest.

Recently Moscow said it will place state-of-the-art Iskander missiles in its Kaliningra­d enclave, bordering Poland and Lithuania, for a major exercise.

Last week, over 550 young Polish reservists were summoned on one hour’s notice to a military base for a mobilizati­on drill. In their 20s and 30s, in jeans and sneakers, the men and women arrived at a base in Tarnowskie Gory, in southern Poland for days of shooting practice. One of them, 35-year-old former soldier Krystian Studnia, said the call was “absolutely natural.”

“Everyone should be willing and ready to fight to defend his country,” he said.

In Warsaw, Mateusz Warszczak, 23, glowed with excitement as he signed up at a recruitmen­t center. “I want to be ready to defend my family,

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Sikorski

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