A military expert on Sky news yesterday outlined that the size of the European forces if all mobilised would be at least 1.5 times that or more of what Russia has, likely more given the losses Russia has incurred. He also outlined that Europe is much wealthier if it chose to spend on military and defence. As for nuclear weapons, it's pretty irrelevant how many Russia has (if working). If we get to that point, the world is done.
Just going on what the BBC said last night and the fact that countries like Italy Germany and poland have said they wouldn't be sending troops to Ukraine. I think our army is small been underfunded for years there was personal even as far back as Iraq and Afghanistan been reported to not have correct equipment.
I think if push came to shove, European countries would step up for their own security. Though you are right, the conservatives butchered defence spending over the last 14 years. There is also some truth that until a country actually starts fighting, it doesn't know how strong it is. Russia had allsorts of equipment fails and resorted back to their meat grind and bomb to dust strategy... Which as long as you don't care that your (or others) people are dieing in the thousands, can gain ground.
https://bsky.app/profile/newseye.bsky.social/post/3ljk3ly6iuk2g NEW: JD Vance describes UK & French troops in Ukraine as “20,000 troops from some random country that hasn’t fought a war in 30 or 40 years”. So much for the support British troops gave in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Spare a thought for JD Vance who appears to have early stages of dementia to forget we've been involved in a few wars in the past 30-40 years.
Let's not forget the other stuff he's doing. 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada, 20% on China. Dollar falling, Dow Jones dropping. Then to kick off his Tuesday he's posted a deeply disturbing authoritarian message on his own media platform, threatening any student who protests with deportation, expulsion, arrest and their school, college or university to have its funds frozen.
He’s back tracked on his words saying that he was talking about other countries. The only 2 countries to say they would help with the peace process are UK and France. If it wasn’t so scary it would be funny as fc uk. The Americans are no longer allied with the rest of the west.
The Americans are no longer allied to reality, reason or anything I'd consider a Western value. Many of us said it would be far worse second time round and it's proving even worse than that!
I agree with a lot of that. The Molotov Ribbentrop Nazi-Soviet Pact is quite a good analogy. The desire of all parties to want 'peace' is also a smokescreen as you allude to - it catches honest/decent politicians out like it did Chamberlain in 1938. The spanner in the works this time round is potential nuclear war. Its possible that some insane, perverted individuals may actually benefit from nuclear war in a material sense but the cost of their indulgence would be catastrophic for the majority on the planet, for eco systems and for stable government. I still doubt that this is the objective and I don't think China would like it to develop like that and they are the main player in my opinion. Things are still in flux of course and there will be ebbs and flows. P.s. I think one could argue that WW2 started as early as 1931 with the Japanese invasion of Manchuria and the failure of the League of Nations. I'm splitting hairs though there mate. Your post was an interesting one.
I see your point but I think the vast majority of Brits, because of their patriotism (and that includes the right-wing nutjobs) will actually call Trump out for this. Starmer has been applauded recently, even by Tories and even Farage today called out Vance for implicitly ridiculing Britain's military. British people are often stupid ( I think brexit personally) but when it comes to national pride and independence in an overall sense we get united. Backs to the wall stuff I think. It unites the right and left.
I am so pissed off and worried and angry about the Ukraine conflict that I actually wrote a letter yesterday to David Lammy suggesting best steps forward. It was quite detailed and well -informed as well. I've not had a reply of course cos I'm a non-entity bloke from Barnsley. I must be very sad.
I also wrote an email to Joe Biden in the White House suggesting, with detail, he stand down for re-election. He resigned the following day for Harris.....
US President Donald Trump's administration is pausing its offensive cyber operations against Russia, officials say, as a diplomatic push continues to end the war in Ukraine https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2er34w0jgdo