At the end of last week, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoygu made a statement that shocked those who paid attention to it with its cynicism. He said: «What has Syria given us? We had moments when designers and specialists from 76 different companies and design bureaus were working at the Hmeimim airbase. We specially built a workshop there where we were able to develop over 300 types of weapons. We encountered a considerable number of unpleasant surprises there. There were weapons that had been accepted into service and had passed state tests, but they were essentially not weapons. They included communication systems, electronic warfare equipment, intelligence equipment, and offensive complexes. In the end, we took almost a dozen types of weapons out of service and stopped their production altogether. I must express my gratitude to our scientific community, which promptly joined the effort and ensured that everything we have in service meets the highest standards. Today, our army is well-trained, well-equipped and one of the best in the world.
In other words, Shoygu openly admitted that the war in Syria, which has resulted in hundreds of thousands of casualties, millions of disabled, orphans, widows and refugees, was considered by the Russian ruling power as a testing ground for new weapons and military technologies. In reality, however, Shoigu was simply echoing Vladimir Putin’s 2015 statement on the war in Syria: «It’s hard to imagine a better exercise. Therefore, we can train there for quite a long time without significant damage to our budget.»
What can be said about that? Of course, one can be indignant about this, and anyone who does so and curses such testers would be right. As it is known, there are no barriers between the supplication of the oppressed and Allah, and we have seen this many times with many Soviet and Russian participants in the wars in Afghanistan, Chechnya and Syria, as well as with their American colleagues who went through Iraq and Afghanistan, and so on.
Military analysts may doubt Shoigu’s bravado and the achievements of the Russian military machine, and they may be right to some extent. But the fact is, no matter how much we are outraged by this cynicism, Shoygu did not reveal anything new about Syria. For military leaders, any war, with its pomp and heroism for some and loss and tragedy for others, is just routine work, and it is a process that they must evaluate and analyze dispassionately, abstracting from human emotion. From this perspective, no matter how outraged we may be, as the Russian proverb goes, tears will not help grief.
In history, politics and wars, there are those who are used as experimental rabbits and those who conduct experiments on them in order to prepare for possible confrontations with serious opponents. Today, the latter must have not only weapons and technologies, but also industry and science. This must be understood and kept in mind by Muslims who seek Jihad, which, if we leave aside the religious dimension, essentially means war. Do you have any idea what kind of weapons, technologies and personnel are needed for this war today? What does your supposed enemy have and where do you plan to get it from? Or do you intend to become the test subjects of all this and turn your countries into testing grounds for it?