"Huge" military exercise in southern Latvia

[Karlis Ulmanis]

[Excerpt from a satyrical foreign TV show]

 

 

This is Latvia, and these are Latvian men! What are they doing!? They think they are a real military. The Mighty and Everlasting Latvian "Reich" has unveiled its unmatched military forces. As many as ten 80 years old Panzers and two hundred goose-stepping Latvian Stormtroopers have been taking part in a major military exercise in southern Latvia near the Lithuanian border. "Operation Latvia's Glory" or "Operation Let's Pretend", as we labeled it, is the culmination of Latvia's attempt to reassert itself as a key player among the baltic nations. One is a major regional power in the North, the Republic of Exodus, and the southern one, Lithuania, does not officially exist anymore. Therefor, Latvia is the 2nd most powerful country among the baltic States region. Silver medal, if it were the olympics. But hope is the last to die, as the saying goes. Or at least this is the message the eccentric Latvian prime Minister, Oskars Dankers, wishes to send to the people of Latvia "Latvia has the right to its place under the Sun!" he said in his daily nationalistic rant.

 

An operating base was set up by the II. Infantry Brigade among cows and sheeps, in a rural barn in southern Latvia, in a simulated warzone recreated by Latvian craftmen and so-called military experts. While international analysts have labeled the Latvian army as "The best reenactment group of North-Eastern Europe", Latvian Stormtroopers practised trench warfare. They might aswell rescue the Central Powers in the final years of World War I. The Latvians are only 100 years old late to show up on the battlefields.

 

Speaking to Latvia Today, Prime Minister Dankers said it was an exercise on a very large scale. "It's a sizable Assault force which we are integrating within our Armed Forces," he said. "There are 200 Latvian stormtroopers deployed in this military exercise, 10 Panzers and a plethora of transport trucks.". Except for the fact their goose-stepping is not high enough, and awfully coordinated, and the fact their weapons are 80 years old, the Latvian Stormtroopers surely show commitment to the cause of the so-called "Dankers' Revolution".

Edited December 29, 2016 by Karlis Ulmanis