Military Honor

The military is an honorable sect. I arrived at this definition in connection with the actions of the Polish Parliament aimed at lifting the immunity of former Defense Minister Mariusz Błaszczak. He publicly accused a certain general of failing to inform the minister about a Russian missile that had violated Polish airspace and fallen somewhere in a forest. The general, however, made public documents showing that Mr. Błaszczak had in fact been informed about it.

I believe that the military is a slippery matter, testing collective honor in a way rarely encountered in other environments. Honor does not seem to be particularly important in idolatrous religious sects or in politics—where everyone lies like ordinary criminals. In the military, a group of subordinate soldiers agrees to live and even die for a cause presented by their commander. But what happens when that commander knowingly lies to the people under his command?

I remember a certain king. During a battle he charged into the enemy ranks with his personal guard. Everyone died except the ruler himself, who had secretly arranged this with the opposing side. Verification came later during the Vietnam War, when, as an ordinary soldier, he threw himself onto a grenade so that the other members of his unit would survive.

Another example comes from contemporary Russia. There, Putin’s “Chef” sent an army toward Moscow in 2023. He withdrew the force after a few days, but soon afterward died in an airplane crash.

Yet another example, though not a bloody one. A road-construction company employing nearly one hundred people went bankrupt. They completed all the work correctly, but the payer—a larger company—never paid the subcontractor. Several hundred years earlier, the owner of that larger company had been a king who hired a unit of three hundred soldiers to carry out a task. He paid the commander with a chest of gold. The commander took the gold and fled. When, in the present incarnation, he came as a construction contractor with an invoice to the payer, the latter replied: “I already paid you once.”

I may be mistaken in my assessment of military honor and dishonor.

A thief, someone who steals on a massive scale, may experience no consequences because he has connections. Yet the significant percentage of left-handed people in the human population suggests that, in the past, left-handed individuals had their right hands cut off because those hands were considered too “sticky.”

How will the military judge Minister Błaszczak for allegedly slandering a subordinate, for clearing his own name at the expense of an officer? It is also possible that, having a good opportunity now, the minister merely responded karmically—and with delay—to earlier accusations made by the general.

Opublikowano: 17/06/2026
Autor: Sławomir Majda
Kateogrie: The Prostitute and the Soldier [PTSD, Combat Shock]

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