An interesting piece, but I disagree that the push back against Covid dictatorship wasn’t very important. Russia merely highlights the reasons why any sort of dictatorship is a road we don’t want to go down. Then ‘From now on the budget would surpass 2% of GDP – just as a blustering Donald Trump had demanded’ – the sentence would have been more professional and punchy if the word ‘blustering’ had been left out. It wasn’t necessary and Trump was right.
I have to add the article makes no mention of why Russia invaded Ukraine. The aithor falls into the now commonplace trap of seeing Putin as some one dimensional cartoon baddy from an 80s action film.
Perhaps he has lost his mind. But far more likely is that there are is a complex geo-political dynamic at play, in which Putin’s ego and pride play a part.
And as always: follow the money. Who worries more about moldering warehouses of old rockets than the manufacturers of new ones?
Big Tech and Big Pharma just had their payday. Now, with the latest manufactured crisis, Big Arms is having its turn suckling at the teet.
Russia wants The Ukraine under its control so that the Ukrainians can’t undercut them when the (newly-found?) Oil and Gas gets sent to Europe via Poland. The extra wheat will be an added bonus.
‘From now on the budget would surpass 2% of GDP – just as a blustering Donald Trump had demanded’
I think he meant to say “the prescient President Trump”
Admiral Ramsey after Dunkirk said ” All British victories start from defeat”. Does that mean we are good at learning from our mistakes? As Orwell asked ” Why are poems about failures and not successes. There is a poem about the Charge of Light Brigade but not Waterloo ?” Does the self deprecating humour of the British prevent excesses ?
Trump would have let the Ukrainians sink, like when he tried to bribe them for a favour over military arms. He cares about no one but himself. Bluster is rather too kind.
Well, nothing has actually happened yet, it’s just a statement of changed intent at the moment.
Meeting their NATO defence spending obligations is scheduled for 2024.
By the way, the rockets that Germany intends to send to Ukraine are so old that about a third of them have become inoperable. Germany’s ‘defence’ has been mouldering away in manky warehouses, so they need to pull their fingers out on this.
Ian Barton
2 years ago
Another step nearer the “EU army” that Putin is doubtless concerned about.
ETO might be more worrying that NATO.
Last edited 2 years ago by Ian Barton
David Kingsworthy
2 years ago
“meaning Germany has finally woken to the obvious fact that it is a mature”
What has happened to the word “awakened”? Awoken is valid, really?
Woken is the past participle of ‘to wake’, whereas awakened is the part particle of ‘to awaken’. Both are acceptable ways of indicated the transition from sleep to alertness/consciousness.
To make matters worse, we also have the verb ‘to awake’, for which the past participle is awoken.
And of course, thanks to our friends on the unhinged left, we now have the adjective ‘woke’, the nouns ‘wokester’, ‘wokeness’…
To avoid the tangle, I suggest we simply go back to sleep. 😉
Rob Britton
2 years ago
“From now on the budget would surpass 2% of GDP — just as a blustering Donald Trump had demanded.”
As with so much Donald Trump spoke the truth (THE truth, not his truth). Note the clip of German officials sniggering as Trump warns about Germany relying solely on Russian gas.
Ian Stewart
2 years ago
Hallejulah!
And now the mantle of guilt for inhumanity passes from Germany and Japan to Russia, for the next 60 years.
Enjoy the vodka, comrades!
Jerry Carroll
2 years ago
The Germans man for man arguably were the best soldiers in the world. Only Churchill and the blunders of the mad man at the top kept them from victory.
Not really. When Britain started it’s war economy in 1939 we became far more efficient than Germany by mid 1940. Germany started planning for war in 1919 and trained in the Ukraine from the late 1920s to early 1930s and then Hitler took over from 1933.
From 1930 the left wing intelligentsia were against the armed forces and stopped investment in the defence required. What Germany did do was prepare for war from 1919, whereas Britain forgot the vast majority of lessons learnt by 1918 and spent most of the 1930s ignoring the drumbeat of war. However, when it came to it, we developed what was needed for a modern war.
An interesting piece, but I disagree that the push back against Covid dictatorship wasn’t very important. Russia merely highlights the reasons why any sort of dictatorship is a road we don’t want to go down.
Then ‘From now on the budget would surpass 2% of GDP – just as a blustering Donald Trump had demanded’ – the sentence would have been more professional and punchy if the word ‘blustering’ had been left out. It wasn’t necessary and Trump was right.
Indeed – and all recent US presidents have been demanding this.
I have to add the article makes no mention of why Russia invaded Ukraine. The aithor falls into the now commonplace trap of seeing Putin as some one dimensional cartoon baddy from an 80s action film.
Perhaps he has lost his mind. But far more likely is that there are is a complex geo-political dynamic at play, in which Putin’s ego and pride play a part.
And as always: follow the money. Who worries more about moldering warehouses of old rockets than the manufacturers of new ones?
Big Tech and Big Pharma just had their payday. Now, with the latest manufactured crisis, Big Arms is having its turn suckling at the teet.
Russia wants The Ukraine under its control so that the Ukrainians can’t undercut them when the (newly-found?) Oil and Gas gets sent to Europe via Poland. The extra wheat will be an added bonus.
Who is going to run the farms growing the wheat, alongside the mines that will need to be cleared and the infrastructure rebuilt? Russia?
Yes it’s all terribly complex because it’s Putin and his tremendous genius. Isn’t it?
‘From now on the budget would surpass 2% of GDP – just as a blustering Donald Trump had demanded’
I think he meant to say “the prescient President Trump”
Pearls for swines. Some people will never learn from their mistakes. Like the Germans.
Admiral Ramsey after Dunkirk said ” All British victories start from defeat”. Does that mean we are good at learning from our mistakes? As Orwell asked ” Why are poems about failures and not successes. There is a poem about the Charge of Light Brigade but not Waterloo ?” Does the self deprecating humour of the British prevent excesses ?
No the fascist supporting Trump.
Journalists and most other writers just can’t help themselves.
It’s a problem! A lot of my editing process is nothing more than removing adjectives.
Trump would have let the Ukrainians sink, like when he tried to bribe them for a favour over military arms. He cares about no one but himself. Bluster is rather too kind.
TDS still lives.
Well, nothing has actually happened yet, it’s just a statement of changed intent at the moment.
Meeting their NATO defence spending obligations is scheduled for 2024.
By the way, the rockets that Germany intends to send to Ukraine are so old that about a third of them have become inoperable. Germany’s ‘defence’ has been mouldering away in manky warehouses, so they need to pull their fingers out on this.
Another step nearer the “EU army” that Putin is doubtless concerned about.
ETO might be more worrying that NATO.
“meaning Germany has finally woken to the obvious fact that it is a mature”
What has happened to the word “awakened”? Awoken is valid, really?
Woken is the past participle of ‘to wake’, whereas awakened is the part particle of ‘to awaken’. Both are acceptable ways of indicated the transition from sleep to alertness/consciousness.
To make matters worse, we also have the verb ‘to awake’, for which the past participle is awoken.
And of course, thanks to our friends on the unhinged left, we now have the adjective ‘woke’, the nouns ‘wokester’, ‘wokeness’…
To avoid the tangle, I suggest we simply go back to sleep. 😉
“From now on the budget would surpass 2% of GDP — just as a blustering Donald Trump had demanded.”
As with so much Donald Trump spoke the truth (THE truth, not his truth). Note the clip of German officials sniggering as Trump warns about Germany relying solely on Russian gas.
Hallejulah!
And now the mantle of guilt for inhumanity passes from Germany and Japan to Russia, for the next 60 years.
Enjoy the vodka, comrades!
The Germans man for man arguably were the best soldiers in the world. Only Churchill and the blunders of the mad man at the top kept them from victory.
Not really. When Britain started it’s war economy in 1939 we became far more efficient than Germany by mid 1940. Germany started planning for war in 1919 and trained in the Ukraine from the late 1920s to early 1930s and then Hitler took over from 1933.
From 1930 the left wing intelligentsia were against the armed forces and stopped investment in the defence required. What Germany did do was prepare for war from 1919, whereas Britain forgot the vast majority of lessons learnt by 1918 and spent most of the 1930s ignoring the drumbeat of war. However, when it came to it, we developed what was needed for a modern war.