Chapter IV. Fight or not? – that is the question
So how's the buying going? Any luck getting everything off the list? You don't? It's okay. Contrary to appearances, you presently have quite a few time. You don't gotta go to work today... Yeah, how's your work? They let you go by the end of the week? Is the boss answering her calls? Have they gotten over it or not? Well, anyway, it would be good of you to let them know that you're taking a fewer days off on your own. If, of course, you have not yet been ordered to work with another solutions. You know, order is important. Ordnung muss sein, as the Wehrmacht boys said in 39’. Especially in war. So, compose an email to work saying you're staying home for now and you'll let them know immediately if your next plans change.
But before you e-mail, make yourself any good tea or coffee and sit down for a while. It is time to consider another crucial substance after the evacuation is resolved: fight or not fight? Sounds a small Shakespearean. By the way, I presume you decided to stay home at least until tomorrow. You know, hasty action, even in the event of war, usually leads to irrational decisions. Contrary to appearances, succumbing to moods, sheep's shoots, panic, charm (or nightmare) of the minute leads to nothing good in the strategical planning process. So wherever you live in Poland, whether Russian tanks have already passed under your window, whether there are bombs already in the area, or on the contrary – you can see from the window Germans walking on the another side of Odra – stay home until tomorrow. If it's hot, go down to the basement.
Believe me – the first hours of war are truly quite a few improvisation and considerable amateurism performed by all actors of this nightmare spectacle – the army, administration, media and civilians. If you look at it a small bit from the side without taking any function on your shoulders, nothing truly will happen. And in order not to waste time and not go out of your head – collect and filter information. You'll have more aid with social media than authoritative media. You are more curious in what happens in the area and what they do (what they need) household and friends than what they gotta supply authoritative means of information. That there's a war, you know. And I inactive have the silent hope that you are inactive pursuing your broader plan in connection with the eventual occurrence of the state of W. I believe you read this guide for the first time in peace, and now you're just checking the checklist.
What did the people at the marketplace say? Rumors spread? Is the tension reaching for the zenith? Are they letting people go? Remember – you do not succumb to this atmosphere of the end of the world. War is not the end of the world. This is the beginning of a fresh reality to which, unfortunately, we will gotta get utilized to. possibly he'll even come to set up for a while. You can't control it, but you can adapt. What can you do? You have to.
And right now it's time to make up a fewer things. Specify in relation to the fresh reality. Fight or not? Take the bull by the horns or sit like a mouse under a broom? Of course, if you come to the conclusion that by taking a break from your regular duties, you will do something for the country, that does not mean that you should take a buck in your hand and hitchhiking with volunteers on the front. That's not how it works today. And you don't gotta feel the vocation to that degree of sacrifice.
Let's start with a cool analysis, gradually warming the atmosphere. Today's armed conflict has it in common that partisans or common movements do not make much sense in it. Professional armed forces spend quite a few time practicing, playing and mastering equipment. Equipment that is not as easy to usage as a Kalashnikov machine. It takes time to learn how to operate Kalashnikov. A lesson hr is far from enough. And while we're at gunpoint, the manual for the service of a full-time carbine in the equipment of the Polish army – Grot – is 92 pages. A lot.
And this is an example sketch of the defence of tank platoon:
Fig. 1. Tank platoon defence sketch [source: Order No. 221/DWLand Commanders of the Land Forces of 02.06.2011 “Plutan commander guide”].
And the tank platoon in the case of the above hieroglyph is... 4 tanks. Four. Well, I'm looking at it, and I'm very excited to remember the officers' school days. We didn't have all-military colour printers at the time, so we had to paint these pictures with crayons and lines. Oh, those were the days... In war, however, tanks do not like to stand inactive and wait for the platoon lord to immortalize them on canvas or even in a notebook. Which does not change the fact that the modern military is simply quite a few secret knowledge, and it is not always actual to say that “not matriculation, but sincerity, will make you an officer.” Then the enemy drones that are not included in the sketch will arrive, “and in p... he landed and the full mystery plan besides in p...”. I think that's what was said in the movie “Killers II” if I didn't confuse something.
And just to be clear: training a good infantryman in a private way, which will not be a “one-off cannon meat” utilized to admit the enemy's fire points by its own body, is about 9 months. There's no mercy. And 9 months is simply a long time. A lot.
Moreover, the current dynamics of the Russian-Ukrainian war indicates that we are 1 step ahead of the crucial robotic field of combat. Flying drones, caterpillar drones, and who knows if walking drones are increasingly replacing a soldier in a direct fire connection with an opponent. Imagine the shock that North Korean commandos must be in to fight humans. People you can see. Even if they're in the trench. Meanwhile, they are mowed by 40 kilometres of artillery, hunted by drones, whose operators are 5 or 10 km distant from them, and at best they have a chance to enter a minefield under the fire of device guns. Automated device guns whose fire can be controlled by an operator hidden a kilometer or 2 from where the firearm was placed.
Given the above facts and trends, realistically assessing the case, it should be considered that the huntsman with the artillery presently has small military use. That doesn't change the fact that specified a huntsman can effectively shoot the commander of the tank and safely retreat after specified a feat. On the 1 hand, in the modern war, modern technology gives a tone, on the another hand, documented cases of drop-down drones with sticks.
I hope I didn't bore you with this lecture on the modern battlefield. I just want to make certain you're in line for WKU right after the war starts. The Armed Forces know who they need, and they have already put them on alert (unless they have a nygus like our Thomas for a while). Volunteers are likely to be inspected, possibly tested for wellness fitness, and sent home with polite information that the army will address them if necessary. This besides happened during the first days of the war in Ukraine. A wide scope of volunteers were sent back from the proverbial wars. possibly not due to the fact that they weren't objectively needed. But they could not be equipped, armed and rationally used. So there was no request to mobilise them.
Moreover, the army of Ukraine, which presently has about 800,000 mobilized personnel, is “completed”, i.e. equipped and trained to the standards of the modern battlefield of about 50%. The problem in the modern conflict is not the recruit, but the equipment and training. And this is actual of our country. E.g. writing these words myself – a reserve officer with an emergency assignment In the Lieutenant of the Land Army – I mention to the level of my military expertise gained in 2000, about as it relates to the general method condition of my beloved pel omega of 2002 to a fresh electrician taken from the surviving room. Well, at least I've been at war in the last 3 years.
So if you are a young individual and want to tie your future to the military, do so in a time of peace, not erstwhile the first shots are fired. due to the fact that at this point, there's a small bit of time to embrace the basics of soldier craft. Which does not mean that even the most neglected civilian cannot participate in the collective effort of defending the homeland. How? The 1 below.
But before I decision on to discussing the ways in which you can service a good cause, I request to make a small disclaimer. Excavating the abyss of the net in search of information about the practice of the law of war, I erstwhile reached the limits of the Internet. To a place where you immediately gotta finish surfing and open the most physical window in the flat to let any oxygen in and mostly air out.
It was a terrible place. This place was quoted by any Polish doctor of law (her personality I had already dispelled from memory, as well as the coordinates of this place on the Internet), who rather seriously explained to the writer that during the war blocking a moving enemy column through the state of her way could be the basis for legal execution of protesters as participants in armed activities. Yeah, you read it well. Unarmed and calmly behaved civilians who stand in the way of tanks gain the position of legitimate military targets through direct participation in armed action. If they're looking at the passage of a fewer enemy troops off the pavement, they can't be bothered or attacked. But if they decide to walk around after a pedestrian crossing, preventing the movement of enemy military vehicles, you can, according to the opinion of a doctor, shoot them as participants in the war.
See? erstwhile again, we receive proof of how powerful a weapon the word is and the information they carry, and how carefully it belongs to these information that we acquire. It is no secret that Vladimir Putin and Maria Lwowa-Belov, the Commissioner for Children in his administration, are covered by an arrest warrant issued on 17 March 2023 by the global Criminal Court as suspected of committing war crimes by violating the Geneva Convention.
Putin's case is simply a deficiency of appropriate control over his subordinates. In the case of Lvov-Bielov on the organisation of forced resettlement of Ukrainian children from areas occupied by Russian troops inside the Russian Federation. Yes, this time you besides read well: Putin is accused of stealing children and this is simply a war crime in the light of the Geneva Convention, specifically in the light of the 4th Geneva Convention for the Protection of civilian Persons during the War, which was signed on 12 August 1949. In the meantime, a doctor argues that the shooting of an unarmed man blocking a tank's passage is not just a war crime, but an acceptable practice of carrying out armed action.
Why am I mentioning this? due to the fact that you may be unlucky and meet any “doctor” in a tank that will conclude that the perfect treatment for you will be a bullet to the head. due to the fact that you're interrupting due to the fact that you're participating due to the fact that you're in the incorrect place at the incorrect time. In war conditions, you gotta keep it in the back of your head.
It is not worth becoming an interesting case for lawyers at the cost of their lives. So it is better to presume that bad things will happen, or even worse, than that we have the law and are protected by tribunals. So plan your possible participation in the fight for freedom rationally. Unless you want to trade your life for a memorial to honor. Do you remember our Ukrainian protoplast of a drunk Zenk from Zahajek, Roman Gawrilenko, who stopped the Russian column with a lactic car? He got a medal from president Zelenski. But I'm not certain if he drank himself to death after that, due to the fact that he was going this way before the war.
All right. You are already aware that in the doctrine of global law in the field of armed conflict there is no conformity with the assessment of what can and cannot be done by a organization fighting against civilians taking various actions in the area covered by armed action. Okay, I'm sorry, I get a lawyer out of me sometimes. With this awareness and wanting to do something for your final victory, you have 2 choices: volunteering and tiny sabotage. You can volunteer anywhere. A small sabotage, in principle, can be done mainly in the armed area.
Volunteering is all about helping displaced people, victims of war, armed forces, etc. If you want to get involved, and I'll tell you what's worth it, just sit in the computer and see who's starting to organize something in your neighborhood. possibly there's a request for humanitarian aid somewhere, possibly they request volunteers for the deployment of refugees somewhere, possibly at the train station individual makes sandwiches for travelers, and we could usage all pair of hands. Ideas and possibilities will be without a hitch.
Some actions are truly hard to imagine, but if individual already imagines them and starts putting them into practice, they are usually highly needed. From sewing tactical vests to carrying a specialized gear through making trench candles, to occupying children with painting laurels, which can then be added to packages with humanitarian aid. Believe me, for those talented specified children's paintings may mean more than a sack of flour or a bag of fried oil. I keep a fewer of these myself. Painted in France. Sometimes I even think that I would like to thank the children who painted them and their guardians someday. The kids must have grown up by now.
So you see that there's something to take care of. alternatively of sitting at home watching the news on the telephone until you're out of your mind, you'd better keep your hands and your head busy. Something practical, something that makes sense. Find yourself 1 as shortly as you can. If you truly don't know what to do, just go to your local train station. There's definitely something going on. All you gotta do is join, and then it's on its own. That's how you're gonna have your first scary day. You can connect your loved ones to these activities. Make them useful, too. And don't let them beat each another up with news that won't be good. Don't forget the old media rule: good information is bad information. And on the first day of the war, as I have already said, the information – bad or good – will definitely prevail over disinformation. That's the way it is.
Small sabotage is as wide a scope of activities as volunteering. It involves more risk, but besides more adrenaline. If you like the thrill, it'll be like erstwhile for you. Not that I can get you to bake dumplings with rat poison and welcome these specials entering your occupying village, but there's a fewer little risks you can take to make the invaders miserable.
You can deal with misinformation. Yeah, I know, I talk about her a lot. But it's besides a weapon. Imagine my surprise, erstwhile I got out of the lap, I drove for the first time any forgotten by God and people on the road from Chernihov to Kiev and abruptly drove into the village of “Mountain” which was east of Kiev before the war. I thought I was seeing something. erstwhile the next village was Glewacha, which before the war took place on the Odska way south of Kiev, I began to fishy that I had fallen victim to a Maiavellian plan. Yes – the inhabitants of northern Suburbia of Kiev from Desna were able to produce full professional plaques with village names for 4 weeks and to baptize their villages into completely different ones, which were located in completely different places. I, who rather well know the area of Kiev, due to the fact that I have lived in this town since 2012, fell for it. I started wondering if I was lost. What kind of confusion would the Russians be in? According to the rules of their own war art, they drove, knowing paper maps. Not only were any of these maps rather out of date, but on the way, they met specified surprises. Brilliant, isn't it?
Where it was not possible to produce Facebook boards with local names or signposts, locals simply painted signposts. Of course – from a distance of respective meters you could read traces of letters that were dusting from blue or green paint. But from a distance of a kilometer the officer leading the column had no chance through binoculars to decipher to what intersection is approaching and where he should direct his subordinates.
Imagine that I came up with a brother-in-law with an thought to paint a large inscription “Innimanije, mines!” on the entrance to our village. And imagine that a fewer days later, on fields worked by the father-in-law, there appeared hand-made plaques with the same inscription – “Note, mines”. The best part was we didn't set them up. For 2 days, we looked after the metalworks, whose work they were. And the “saboteurs” were unsuccessful. Tell yourself what kind of faces we had, walking around these fields... And before the first entry of the tractor, we pulled straws, who would be behind the wheel, and who would evidence a study by telephone for posterity tearing tic-tok... As you can imagine – there were no mines – I compose these words. But erstwhile you see the sign “Note the Mines!” you will think twice, even if you know the field and feel all yourself that it is simply a Facebook. What if you don't know the field and you're just passing through?
Russian propaganda convinced its soldiers that Ukrainians were a fraternal nation to greet them with bread and salt and flowers. certain thing, we're up to the challenge. We tried to choose the flowers that were as beautiful as possible, and we could say those that were hard to pass or pass. Like in the image below. Of course it's a waste of trees. Of course, in peacetime, this kind of action is threatened by a powerful college. But during war, priorities change. From the north side of Bobrowica, behind “Brazil”, meaning Branica, in the alleged Dark Forest trees were knocked down on the road over half a kilometer. The invaders are stuck there for 2 days.
Fig. 5. Provincial barricade from a fallen tree [photo: own]. If 2 anti-tank mines were to be dug on the left side of the mud, it would be a “half cunt”. Of course, the mines work against everyone, the neighbour can ride them too. A surprise with mines requires 24-hour, uninterrupted surveillance on both sides of the obstacle, so that their own do not get into it. An anti-tank mine in explanation shouldn't have exploded since it was raided by bicycle. It requires about 150 and more kilograms of force on the trigger. But I wouldn't urge checking. You know, the static mass is different, or the application of the momentum (the mass multiplied by the speed), and you gotta consider the force origin on the surface unit. Otherwise it spreads 100 kg into 30 square centimetres, or five. Interesting physics. Especially for the bomb squad. The sapper has a tiny margin of error.
