Serving up a sombre reality check, Air Chief Marshal Knighton said he agreed with his French counterpart, General Fabien Mandon, who said last month that France must be ready for the possibility of losing its children in a potential war with Russia.
“The situation is more dangerous than I have known during my career, and the price of peace is rising,” the British defence chief said.
“Our response needs to go beyond simply strengthening our armed forces. It needs a whole of nation response that builds our defence industrial capacity, grows the skills we need, harnesses the power of the institutions we will need in wartime and ensures and increases the resilience of society and the infrastructure that supports it.”
He continued: “Sons and daughters. Colleagues. Veterans. …will all have a role to play.
“To build. To serve. And if necessary, to fight. And more families will know what sacrifice for our nation means.”
While I admire the patriotic call to arms, my initial response is: feck away off. We will all be brandishing our Irish passports faster than you can sing ‘Who do you think you are kidding, Mr Hitler’.
I suspect our military industrial complex is hyping up the Russian threat for the usual reason of getting colossal amounts of taxpayer money. There’s no money for health or education, but there’s always a magic money tree for defence.
Not that I am saying I don’t take the threat of Russia seriously, but let’s face it, their performance in Ukraine has not exactly been great.Russia’s advance on Ukraine is literally slower than a snail. Ex-Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Sir Tony Radakin told BBC Sounds’ Political Thinking with Nick Robinson podcast in September that if a snail had left Rostov-on-Don at the start of the war, it would now have crossed Ukraine and be halfway across Poland.
If Russia is stupid enough to attack a NATO country, the response would be brutal. Russia would likely lose to Finland alone, never mind the combined NATO.
When you step back from the sabre rattling, it’s all very depressing. The West really screwed up when the USSR fell apart. They should have pushed to get rid of more nuclear weapons and done more to get the Russians integrated better with Europe. I hope and pray that the next leaders we get in the US and Europe put more focus on peace-building, especially with China.
As Nick Lowe once said, “What’s so funny ’bout peace, love, and understanding?”
I help to manage Slugger by taking care of the site as well as running our live events. My background is in business, marketing and IT. My politics tend towards middle-of-the-road pragmatism; I am not a member of any political party. When not stuck in front of a screen, I am a parkrun Run Director.
Discover more from Slugger O’Toole
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
