30 minutes ago Uk Defense Minister John Healey resigned and sent a scathing letter to the PM claiming the defense of Great Britain is at risk and highlighting intelligence assessments from the UK and other European countries (not the U.S.), predicting an attack by Russian on NATO by 2030.

It is important to note this is a long serving and very left leaning politician. If you follow European politics you will know there was great press two years ago when the Labor party came back to power...arguing "the adults are back in control." Now the realities of the world are colliding with unchecked immigration, entitlement spending and an inability to fund the defense of the nation. When the left leaning DM calls out the PM and publicly resigns you know there are issues and threats that need to be addressed.

Have you considered maybe he was forced out by the party and is playing politics to cause damage / prep his political prospects?

I generally don't go from not believing a politician from a different party to all of the sudden hanging on every word just because they're saying something that fits my world view.

50 minutes ago, Boomer6 said:

Have you considered maybe he was forced out by the party and is playing politics to cause damage / prep his political prospects?

I generally don't go from not believing a politician from a different party to all of the sudden hanging on every word just because they're saying something that fits my world view.

I have considered that like ALWAYS you are the contrarian to almost anything I or anyone conservative posts.

For the record, I have several VERY close Brit friends that I served with for many years. Both have been discussing and sharing with me for months. The major point to be made is the intel apparatus in Europe believes Russia may attack and all you can do is twist it into yet another passive aggressive personal attack about my rationale.

Not downplaying the threat of Russia but methinks they have other more pressing threats than a Russia tied up in Ukraine

@ClearedHot

Do you think the letter released above was a wag the dog tactic in reference to the Belfast attack and proximity to the Henry Nowak murder?

It’s interesting reading the letter, the British establishment is still in denial about where they are now and the direction of travel of their country. It’s not good, ours is better than theirs still challenging with our own problems ahead but different.

It’s important for them to be a credible and capable NATO partner but power and power in excess to be able to project it for whatever reason comes from security, stability and prosperity at home.

Personally, I think they should take the prediction and analysis of Prof David Betz very seriously.

https://www.militarystrategymagazine.com/article/civil-war-comes-to-the-west-part-ii-strategic-realities/

Edited Thursday at 08:43 PM3 days by Clark Griswold

With the enormous loss of people and hardware in the current entanglement with Ukraine, how is Russia going to pull off going further afield attacking several more countries (with a couple nuke holders in the mix) in the next 4 years?

1 hour ago, TreeA10 said:

With the enormous loss of people and hardware in the current entanglement with Ukraine, how is Russia going to pull off going further afield attacking several more countries (with a couple nuke holders in the mix) in the next 4 years?

First, you are thinking like a rational actor which Putin is not.

Second, Russian has almost completely transitioned to a wartime economy with full 8% of GDP being spent on the the military. Even with the enormous loss of equipment their military production transitioned to a surplus last September and they are accelerating.

Third, People are another issue, but that has never stopped Russia and the lunatic in charge will continue on that path.

1 hour ago, ClearedHot said:

First, you are thinking like a rational actor which Putin is not.

can you explain how he is irrational? seems very rational to me.

Putin's stupid because he thought he needed to do what he's doing. He's not irrational though. He felt it was necessary to keep a buffer between him and NATO, while also ensuring that Ukraine wouldn't become a major supplier of energy to Europe. It's a good rational. It just was completely unnecessary.

Judging by Russian performance, I'd bet what Putin gets briefed is not how things actually are...which leads to decisions based on "it's all good Boss!" Those can appear pretty irrational.