The pessimism reflects concern that Russia may be winning a so-called hybrid war with Europe, weakening the options available to Nato war planners in the event of military conflict.
The surge in support for the populist forces in Europe’s main military states is also endangering proposals for a group of five European countries, including the UK, to take on a new coordination role as the US prepares to reduce its commitments to the conventional defence of Europe.
Defence officials, speaking at a forum convened by the Munich Security Conference (MSC), the leading security foundation, said the European public may not have the appetite for a prolonged war, requiring Nato to focus its plans on a relatively quick conflict.
One recent British cabinet member admitted the west had been “crap” at educating its public about the scale of the hybrid conflict with Russia. Another UK diplomat claimed successive British prime ministers had done nothing to explain the scale of the threat.
They said this had left ministers locked in an unenviable task of persuading unprepared voters to cut welfare spending to fund defence. “The level of the debate has been at that of a kindergarten,” the UK diplomat admitted.
You have to review the context of our discussion. It concerned the solution to Russia’s hybrid war against Europe. You mistakenly thought I said use Ukraine as a fly paper. In response I said Europe would prefer that it be the fly paper.
The president of Czechoslovakia, Edouard Benes was unwilling to give the Sudetenland to Hitler and appealed to France with whom Czechoslovakia had a defensive alliance. France asked the UK for help.
The UK and France thought that letting Hitler have the Sudetenland would appease him and prevent a war. It didn’t.
I didn’t think you said that. I think Ukraine is the obvious fly paper in the analogy. Europe very clearly is not, nor does anyone outside of the continent wish that on themselves.
That’s historical revisionism.
They had no capacity to keep Germans out of Europe. This wasn’t a choice they were making, it was an excuse for their impotency.