Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
London Daily Telegraph
August 6, 2008
Pg. 14
By Matthew Day, Warsaw
Poland is to abolish its conscript army as it moves to a professional force capable of serving alongside its Nato allies in Afghanistan.
Bogdan Klich, the defence minister, said only volunteers would join the armed forces from January.
By October next year, when the last draftees complete their nine months of compulsory service, Poland should have a conscript-free army for the first time since before the Second World War.
The army was 180,000-strong when Poland joined Nato in 1999, but will shrink to about 120,000.
The country's 48,000 conscripts are banned by law from being sent on foreign missions, rendering them "not operationally useful'', according to Lieut-Col Artur Golawski, an army spokesman.
"Ending conscription will allow us to have fully-trained professionals who understand their duty, and the equipment they use,'' he said. "Nine months is not enough time to train a soldier properly. You can't have conscripts running around with a Kalashnikov.''
An advertising campaign has been launched to reach the goal of 120,000 professionals. Lt Col Golawski said the government had plans in case it failed to attract enough recruits, including the possibility of lowering educational requirements for officers.
August 6, 2008
Pg. 14
By Matthew Day, Warsaw
Poland is to abolish its conscript army as it moves to a professional force capable of serving alongside its Nato allies in Afghanistan.
Bogdan Klich, the defence minister, said only volunteers would join the armed forces from January.
By October next year, when the last draftees complete their nine months of compulsory service, Poland should have a conscript-free army for the first time since before the Second World War.
The army was 180,000-strong when Poland joined Nato in 1999, but will shrink to about 120,000.
The country's 48,000 conscripts are banned by law from being sent on foreign missions, rendering them "not operationally useful'', according to Lieut-Col Artur Golawski, an army spokesman.
"Ending conscription will allow us to have fully-trained professionals who understand their duty, and the equipment they use,'' he said. "Nine months is not enough time to train a soldier properly. You can't have conscripts running around with a Kalashnikov.''
An advertising campaign has been launched to reach the goal of 120,000 professionals. Lt Col Golawski said the government had plans in case it failed to attract enough recruits, including the possibility of lowering educational requirements for officers.