"There is someone in this country who is more important than God himself. You understand! When you grow up, you'll only love it. Maybe!” This sentence by Dragan Nikolić from the movie "Tito and I" could perhaps best reflect the current situation in the Serbian Army and the Ministry of Defense and the answer to the question of dissatisfied officers, from lieutenant colonels down, through non-commissioned officers to professional soldiers. One man decides everything. It is Aleksandar Vučić through his party insider advisers, and the Chief of the General Staff and the Minister of Defense are only "spiders" who still know how to use their privileges.
TANDEM FROM THE MINISTRY
The holder of the post of Minister of Defense Miloš Vučević is only an "entertainer", a person who cares about self-promotion even before he became the caricature president of the Serbian Progressive Party. "Triling" Vučević-Dačić-Vesić is simply competing to be a guest in the morning programs of RTS, Pink, Hepi and Prva Television. However, since this text refers to the issue of the defense system, it is logical to ask why the Minister of Defense talks about anything and everything in those daily guest appearances, from threats to the Kosovo army, to calling out "bots", "hostile media", the opposition... In a word, about to everything that comes out of the competence of the Minister of Defense. And as much as Vucevic decides on the policy and actions of the Ministry of Defense - just as much as the street cleaner Sadrija in Zemun on the development plans of City Cleanliness. He is there to take pictures and tell general stories, retelling what the actual Minister of Defense and everything else Vučić said.
If Vučić is the informal but actual Minister of Defense, his right-hand man is the Assistant Minister for Material Resources Nenad Miloradović aka Baća, gray eminence and authorized representative of arms dealers in the Ministry. Enumerating all the failed projects that Baća, the authorized representative of Jugoimport - SDPR, and in the position of assistant minister for that area since 2015, would take up a lot of space in the newspaper. And to mention the amount of money that the state practically threw into the air in that context is even more futile.
Those who follow the defense system know how many hundreds of millions of euros have been invested in the military industry, and it is still in losses. And no one answered. The Defense Inspectorate, under whose jurisdiction it is, has not announced any case, nor has it initiated proceedings. But that's why, at the request of the Military Security Agency (VBA), a decision was made to put a secrecy mark on the printed form of the "Official Military Gazette", which has been published for 160 years, and that decisions and decrees on promotion may not be published in electronic form. , appointment, retirement and termination of active military service. There is only one reason: that the public does not see how many officers, mainly from the technical sector, are leaving the army, from second lieutenant to lieutenant colonel. And it's not just about money, it's about the attitude towards people.
INTENDENT
Recently, a decision was made that the service of colonels who want to be extended until they reach the age of 60, instead of 53 as before. Of course, this caused a revolt among the majors and lieutenant colonels. Namely, they realized their lack of perspective - they will spend years in the same position and in the same place, without promotion, higher salary and a more certain future for the family.
The Chief of the General Staff, General Milan Mojsilović, has reached the peak of his career that those who enter the Military Academy only dream of. I guess that's why he treats the self-proclaimed "supreme" in a courtly manner and reports live to the Pink Television program as if he were a starlet or a member of "Zadruga" and says that he is currently in a jeep on the way to Raška.
The recently appointed Deputy Chief of the General Staff, Lieutenant General Želimir Glišović, is a special story. He is a man three years older than the chief, which sends a negative message to the officers - how will the younger ones progress if the older ones are treated in this way. I guess the deputy must be younger than the chief. The former officers do not have a bad opinion of Glišović as a professional, tank operator, former deputy commander of the Land Army, previously commander of the Third Brigade. They have objections, however, to his closeness with the former commander of the Užice Corps, VJ General Grujica Davidović, one of whose brigades he was the commander of. Namely, Davidović was arrested as someone appointed by Nova Srbija Velje Ilić as the assistant director of "Roads of Serbia" for the control of toll collection. And then, thanks to "Insider", many frauds in that area came to light.
As for the top of the army, the "quartermasters" have the main say, as they are called by members of the combat ranks. Director of the Military Security Agency, Brigadier General Đuro Jovanić, Head of Public Relations Directorate, Brigadier General Mihailo Zogović, Chief of the Minister's Cabinet, Brigadier General Goran Momčilović, Chief of the Military Cabinet of the President of the Republic, Predrag Kraljević, all seniors promoted to general ranks.
"What are you going to do, two wars behind you, the child didn't know me when he was little, from 1993 to 1999 I was in Krajina and Kosovo, then I was transferred to the administrative line towards Kosovo, I came home once every two weeks, then the command in Belgrade, Samac hotel. The child came to study and only then did we get to know each other better. I was so unlucky," says a retired colonel, who graduated from absolutely every top military school there is, but was not qualified to be a general. And who knows how many of those.
ACCORDING TO THE ANNOUNCEMENTS COUNTDOWN'
When it comes to the Ministry of Defense since Vučić came to power, the officers praise the ministers Nebojša Rodić and Bratislava Gašić because they were able to listen where things were critical and to "put out the fire". And they didn't take pictures on television, unlike Vučić, Đorđević, Vulin and Stefanović. They didn't even bring regime television cameras to embarrass them - when they brought the media, it was real, not staged.
Vulin and Stefanović, under the excuse of the corona virus, completely excluded the media from their tours of the units, all of which is done through the Public Relations Administration. That administration overcame all possible humility towards ministers and their activities, from the moment Vulin became a minister. Several announcements of the type "regular training was held" are issued daily, and then whether in the Land Army, RViPVO, armored units, artillery and the like. It is important to measure the number of announcements at the end of the month and announce it to the collegium of ministers. As it turned out, an announcement will be issued tomorrow that the AA soldier on regular military service had 12 hits on the target out of 12 bullets on target number 2, and the BB tank soldier hit the target with the first shell.
Retired Brigadier General Mile Jelić is among the minister's assistants. This tank operator, operative, former commander of the 252nd Armored Brigade, is in charge, no more and no less, than leading the budget and finance sector.
The branches of the Serbian Armed Forces - the Land Army and the Air Force and the Air Defense - are headed by two professionals: Generals Milosav Simović and Duško Žarković. Both experienced and proven soldiers. Simović, admittedly, with his "bugs in his head" and returning to some tradition and "Chetnikism". He, an offshoot of the Army High School in Sarajevo (they call themselves "janissaries"), still wears those old JNA M-77 boots and behaves like a young non-commissioned officer.
Žarković, on the other hand, became the first commander of RViPVO who is not a pilot. It was customary for the commander to be a pilot and the chief of staff to be an anti-aircraft fighter. In this case, a precedent was set, and Žarković uses it to further flatter the "supreme". Why he needs it is inexplicable. Especially since this is a man who has two confirmed downings of enemy aircraft.
All the generals close to them were transferred by the former ministers of defense, when they left for new public positions, as pensioners to state companies, as advisers, assistants or something similar. The list is long.
Here are some examples. The former director of the Military Intelligence Agency, Dragan Vladisavljević, became the ambassador to Azerbaijan after ten years of involvement in the Office for Kosovo and Metohija. Former Chief of the Military Cabinet of the President of Serbia Boris Tadić and Tomislav Nikolić, retired admiral Vaso Gujić, is the Consul General of Serbia in Mostar. The latest news is that former Deputy Chief of the General Staff Petar Cvetković will head the Defense Inspectorate.
