A weak military? NONSENSE!
Posted on 02/07/2023 10:20:26 PM PST by familyop
The illegal invasion of Ukraine has shown we cannot take risks with our defence capabilities especially when Russia is involved. Putin invaded Ukraine because he thought the West is militarily and politically weak, and he was right.
All talk in Westminster and Whitehall has been about cutting soldiers and tank numbers for the past few years – cyber and space technologies are the answer apparently. But mass armour and soldiers have a quality all of their own, as the Ukraine war is showing.
You still need boots on the ground to take and hold ground – no amount of cyber wizardry can replicate this; drones cannot hold territory. The cost of living crisis we are experiencing would not be half as bad if there was not a war in Ukraine, but the risk taken on our defence has contributed to it and found us all wanting.
I rarely agree with the Labour Party on anything, but rebuilding a viable defence force for the 21st Century is one thing they are right about. Whilst some public sector employees strike for even more money, the British military have been stretched to plug the gaps they leave, and do jobs during the Covid epidemic which have little to do with protecting this country. It is clear now that while building Nightingale hospitals, as well as conducting counter insurgency and special forces operations around the globe, the “heavy” metal required to deter the likes of Putin has been allowed to rust in tank sheds.
We must rebuild our forces and develop our domestic defence industry. The UK has a brilliant defence industry which is sometimes overlooked by governments wanting to save a few quid on foreign produced equipment. If we continue to gift equipment and ammunition to Ukraine, which we must, we should also develop domestic industry to sustain our forces in future and restock our ammo.
In equipment terms it appears our armoured capabilities, tanks, armoured fighting vehicles and artillery are most in need of renewal. The Challenger 2 tank must be upgraded or replaced with a completely new tank as a priority. It is difficult to estimate our ammunition stocks, but some commentators suggest we have only a few days’ supply remaining. Whatever the state, it is clear that ammunition stocks must be replenished. Procurers of military kit in government need to understand that companies today cannot afford to have stock “on shelves” for “just in case” and their strategy for supply to the military must realise this immediately.
To rebalance and update defence capability, we must be prepared to up defence spending to 2.5 per cent as a minimum, but more like three per cent of GDP. If the Germans, a defensive nation, can see that three per cent is a minimum, surely our leaders in Westminster can as well? If a party which produces the likes of Jeremy Corbyn, who opposed sending weapons to Ukraine and is critical of Nato, is able to judge that our defence spending must go up, perhaps we have got it badly wrong since the end of the Cold War?
If Ukraine is not the wake-up call to remind all that the first duty of government is to properly protect the nation, we really are in trouble. Pound for pound we still have the best fighting men and women in the world, but at the moment, this lightweight capability may be challenged against our heavy weight adversaries.
Hamish de Bretton-Gordon is a former commander in the UK and Nato Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Forces
No. Not true. Putin invaded the Ukraine after red lines were passed - Angela Merkel publicly admitted that the Minsk agreements with Russia were just a stalling technique until they could train and equip the Ukraine to fight the proxy war and force a regime change in Russia. The biolabs, the building of armed forces to overthrow Russia - eventually Putin reacted to defend Russia. Since then, it’s all window dressing denying what NATO has already admitted - they wanted to overthrow Russia and they deny the biolabs.
It’s precisely the wrong lesson. He attacked because we were being menacing A-holes and boxed him into a corner with a coup and a nazi militia attack increasing in severity on the Donbass.
We were warned for about a decade that this was an actual red line. Then he spent about 5 months before the war trying to tell us he was serious and had some big concerns he wanted addressed. We flipped him the finger and literally said we would do whatever we pleased... there on their border.
And we said we would talk to him about things WE decided were important... but not the issues they painstakingly laid out.
So he was faced with a choice, fight, or acquiesce to our dominance in Ukraine, NATO accession, and a permanent threat. He didn’t want this but we forced his hand.
Then we thought he could be brought to heel with the nuclear option financial sanctions.
All we did was destroy the US Dollar as the world reserve currency and launch runaway inflation.
Actually, our military is Not weak, our leadership is WEAK.
No, Putin wants to expand Russia. He wants to create the Russian empire that existed during the Cold War. He wants to average Russian defeat, just like Hitler wanted to avenge German defeat. Invading Ukraine is just like Hitler’s invading Czechoslovakia. In both their minds, these territories are “rightfully” theirs.
Full of lies and misrepresentations.
Then why is it that when Russia invaded, Ukraine had no western equipment other than a few Javelin atgm’s (a defensive weapon)?
Ukraine had its own weapons inherited from Soviet times, some weapons of native production (like the Stugna atgm, made in partnership with Byelorussia), and stuff it had purchased on its own like the Bayraktar drones from Turkey.
This claim “the building of armed forces to overthrow Russia -” is an obvious propaganda lie.
” and a nazi militia attack increasing in severity on the Donbass.”
Another lie.
Are you having a slow day or is that Russian propaganda so yummy good that alt-facts have replaced basic proven truth?
The USA for YEARS warned other NATO members in Europe that they weren’t picking up enough of their bit of the tab on defense spending.
In the late 90s, Europe (mainly led by France and Germany) were actually trying to position European defense as more of a “peacekeeping operations” concept - why? Because NOBODY IN EUROPE SERIOUSLY THOUGHT WE’D EVER BE AT WAR WITH EACH OTHER.
After the financial crashes in 2008 and Greece going almost bankrupt, with the refugee crises creating massive headaches across western Europe, even less priority was put on OFFENSIVE capabilities.
Here in Britain we mothballed the Harriers and other aircraft, while new aircraft carriers were still being built. We had years of wrangling over whether or not to renew Trident.
None of this is disputable.
And Angela Merkel’s STALLING TACTIC had to be a STALLING TACTIC because Europe literally had no better option at the time.
The insurmountable weight of international law, the UN Charter, the Helsinki Agreement, the Belovezha Accords, and the Budapest Memorandum, is unambiguous: the message to Russia and everybody else is, DON’T EVER INVADE UKRAINE, BELARUS OR KHAZAKHSTAN.
Not only that, it all says, if anyone DOES invade any of those countries, the Budapest Signatories can be called upon to respond to the invasion BY THE INVADED STATE. Our assistance to Ukraine could’ve been totally diplomatic, or boots on the ground - but Western assistance was GUARANTEED if the invading force was a non-NATO force.
Putin is not an idiot - he knew that invading Ukraine would be less risky than invading NATO, but Budapest had within it a “without prejudice” article not that dissimilar to NATO Article 5. It basically meant, if Russia invades Ukraine, USA and UK WOULD get dragged into it. Likewise, if the UK invaded Ukraine, Russia would get dragged into it.
The whole point of Budapest was to prevent Ukraine ever being used as a proxy - which is why it was ALSO in the Budapest agreement that neither the West nor the East would apply coercive control over it. Good old Russia never got that memo because it’s been assassinating, bribing and blackmailing people in Kyiv for at least 15 years. America did dodgy trade deals and worked with biolabs - however bad that looks, it ain’t even close to being on the level of nasty that Russia was already getting up to.
“Regime change in Russia”, ooh my aching sides that’s almost as funny as Russia’s latest belm to the effect of, Nazi Germany broke the Molotov-Rippentrop agreement to attack Russia only because Spain, France, Portugal, Luxemburg and the UK told them to and poor old Hitler had nowhere else to go.
You know how to tell this is Russian propaganda? It contradicts itself. The West had no capability to fight Russia, therefore the West attempted regime change, but the West had to spend eight years on a holding pattern to build up enough of a capability big enough to just hold Russia back inside Ukraine.
You really have to have an IQ lower than a retarded ant to fall for such nonsense.
A weak military? NONSENSE!
“Putin invaded Ukraine because the West’s military is weak”
Absolutely a major factor, and one that I’ve complained about since the start of Ukraine. If the US wants to take over the world, by taking on Russia and China, it WOULD HAVE HELPED to first get our military in shape for it by doing things like matching and/or being able to defend against the Hypersonic Missiles of our enemies, rather than prioritizing Drag Queen shows at West Point and Guam.
“No. Not true. Putin invaded the Ukraine after red lines were passed”
While I agree with what you’re saying, since it’s obvious to anyone who is NOT paid to post here, the headline is also true - we not only crossed the brightest red line ever, we made sure that our military was crap before doing it.
“And we said we would talk to him about things WE decided were important... but not the issues they painstakingly laid out.”
Agree, even during the COLD WAR, we NEVER flipped the finger towards the Soviet Union, even with Neocons around at the end. So what changed? Seems to me that Ukrainians who had a blood feud with Soviet Union managed to work their way to power in the US (starting with Victoria Neuland, but also others), and pushed the entire country into direct armed conflict with the Soviets (as they still see the Russians).
Oh well, at this point, I just want it to end WITHOUT a nuclear war, and I could care who wins. Unfortunately I’m not sure the Ukrainians in power in the US see the same priority in avoiding a nuclear war.
“He (Putin) wants to create the Russian empire that existed during the Cold War.”
Link please.
I had never seen his woke nonsense until the other night on Tucker.
Wow
I always assumed that he had invaded the Ukraine because he was bat sh*t crazy.
Thousands killed, thousands more wounded and maimed for what reason? Because that midget Putin has a hard on for his hero’s Hitler and Napoleon, and he wants to emulate them.
That’s as bat sh*t crazy as it gets.
The only way to attain peace is to prepare for war.
The US and Co were flipping mighty fingers at the Soviets, what are you talking about? Both sides were running a half dozen proxy wars at each other, arming allies facing off everywhere were engaged in massive military buildups, technological one-upmanship, you name it. MIRVs, ABMs, ICBMs, cruise missiles, bomber fleets, and incredible nuclear overkill.
I take it you weren’t paying attention at the time....
And the rest of NATO was way worse off.
Which makes the whole meme that Russia was provoked by NATO incoherent.
Helpless NATO vs NATO as an existential threat. Pick one. Russian propaganda insists on both. Russian propagandists have read Orwells 1984 (about doublethink say) and decided to use it as a manual.
“The US and Co were flipping mighty fingers at the Soviets, what are you talking about? “
Historical facts are annoying - I get it. But maybe the Neocons will learn a LESSON this time, which is to pick up the phone when their enemy calls. Otherwise China will be giving wake-up calls to carrier groups with their Hypersonics.
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