One of the Civil Contract deputies who has the rank of general, in response to the female journalist’s question about the lost territories, turned his hands in her direction and shouted, “You should have gone and held onto them, you shouldn’t have surrendered those territories.” Of course, the government has adopted quite original methods of justifying defeat.
But, on the other hand, let’s admit that the propaganda thesis that the whole problem is that people should have gone and defended their land, but they did not, is “eaten” by the majority of the society. The problem is that the majority still believes that nothing can be done in “peacetime,” but as soon as the war starts, volunteer detachments must be formed and go to war, and the more numerous these fedayeen detachments are, the greater the probability of winning. There can be no such war in the 21st century. By the way, the next war will be not only with the use of UAVs, but, I suppose, with the widespread use of artificial intelligence.
In general, it can be said that war is waged not only by armies (regular and preferably professional), but also, first of all, by the states with their economy, foreign policy, science, education, and culture. Patriotism, decency, and professionalism must be manifested both on the battlefield and in all the mentioned spheres. And first of all, the government must show its ability to govern and unite society. Therefore, the head of state is responsible for the positive or negative outcome of the war. If not only 680,000, but 3 million, or even 10 million Armenians think that he has nothing to do here, I will still have this opinion. Fidayi stories are inspiring, yes, but they are unacceptable as a 21st century state and army strategy.
Recently, Prime Minister Pashinyan noted that in order to win, it is not mandatory or perhaps even necessary to defeat others. To win means to win over despair and death. Theoretically, in some cases this may be true. But when it comes to last year’s war, it’s hard to agree that we lost to despair or death. We lost to the Turkish-Azerbaijani army. Our state, our diplomacy, and our army were weaker than those two states with their capabilities. It is better to call things by name than to fall into psychological nuances. They are not particularly comforting.
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Aram Abrahamyan
