Poland is the only NATO country that decided to maintain her forces and modernization. Her defense budget as a percentage of GDP is equal to the rate Israel spends on her defense. Poland is the only NATO nation preparing for a large land war on her soil while the rest of the NATO nations reduced defense spending.
In a mulitpolar world the first superpower fight will lose. We have five major superpowers or superpowers to be. US, EU, China, Russia and India. Putin move for Crimea has set things in motion. He won the first stages but in the long run he may have undermine Russia’s status. A limited arms race between US/EU and Russia is costly. Granted Russia has gas and oil, but her GDP is only 2 trillion at best. In her alliance with China, Russia is the junior partner. Even though China utter support for Russia, an arms race undermines Russian economic development (a mistake the Soviet Union made). This means Russia will be more dependent on China for consumer goods and financial deals while resources are needed for military build up.
Conclusion is a conflict between the debt ridden US/EU, and Russia will benefit China and India.
Poland + Ukraine = potential real superpower
You wrote a very clear and concise explanation of Poland’s current status of military readiness. I didn’t realize only Poland was smart enough or disciplined enough to maintain most of their weaponry. Now, we need to revert to the Cold War status and spend more on develpoment and maintenance.
If the talk goes to ‘temporarily reviving the draft’ get’s serious, I’ll know we are about to enter a brand new age of Hot Wars.