The snails’ general

We all know that more and more Romanians who think that they are brilliant are convinced that Romania’s salvation depends on their involvement in politics. This idea is supported by the fact that each and every year more and more presidential candidates appear during the electoral period. This is an advantage and a risk at the same time: democracy offers enough room for both maximum liberty and excesses.
28 generals and colonels of the Romanian army have recently decided that their involvement in the political life is necessary for the Romanians’ well-being. It is not diifficult to imagine them discussing about the present state of the country while drinking a pint of beer in a military club in Bucharest. Confused by Pavel Corut’s cock-and-bull stories and Dan Zamfirescu’s mixture of orthodoxy and politics, to which they add the information they’ve got from the secret intelligent services, they think they can change what is happening in Romania now.
Since they cannot go to the front in order to win this battle, they decided to create a "national" association meant to fight for the country’s progress. As one of its outstanding members, general Costica Voicu, puts it, "the association’s purpose is to do what the present authorities can not do, do not know to do or do not want to do." Such a declaration would have led to its author’s immediate dismissal, if it had ben uttered in any democratic country."
The officials of the remarkable American institute of strategic studies STRATFOR have already noticed what was happening in the Romanian army; they have already published an analysis focused on this topic. General Mircea Chelaru, the founder of this strange association, never realized that his actions could be interpreted as an initiative anticipating a coup d’etat.
Perhaps some of us are not shocked by the fact that a general ignores the democratic laws and the way in which they function; if the army system is healthy enough, such a person will be surely eliminated.
But when such an ignorance represents the apanage of at least 28 generals and colonels, some of them being active and holding important positions in the military hierachy, this problem should be more deeply analyzed.
The army corps general Mircea Chelaru, this old-fashioned military man adjusted to the contemporary era, slapped the Romanian army in the face with such a force, that the flush won’t disappear too soon.
(Claudiu RAUS)