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#armchairgeneral - preliminary thoughts about future European security.
The old scenario: in the middle of a war, planning for the next one. However, in the face of abject failure, Europe should reconsider an integrated and independent security system.
The old scenario: in the middle of a war, planning for the next one. However, in the face of abject failure, Europe should reconsider an integrated and independent security system.
Europeans watch daily as horror unfolds, feeling utterly defenceless as European people are thrown under the hammer of a dictator.
This, however, is not a demand for the tired old European army concept within the NATO agenda. We need to accept NATO has failed.
This, however, is not a demand for the tired old European army concept within the NATO agenda. We need to accept NATO has failed.
Europe requires a functioning security structure to better serve the Europeans, whether in or out of the EU. A security policy that serves European interests and defends the European way of life. A structured policy, force and power capability - owned by Europeans not America.
#armchairgeneral - logistics, railways and Russian failure.
The problem with the logistics argument is the absence of facts. The heavy ordinance landing on Ukrainian cities proves: either forward depots or stacked loads. Greater issue can the Ukrainians remain supplied?
The problem with the logistics argument is the absence of facts. The heavy ordinance landing on Ukrainian cities proves: either forward depots or stacked loads. Greater issue can the Ukrainians remain supplied?
In regards to the railways argument, there are parallels to WW2. Without constant interdiction, the railways keep rolling. With declining air space and layers of Russian AA defences, the chance of interdiction is reducing daily.
Russia’s war machine - err - maybe if Russia switches off the fuel supply the western world’s economies will wobble very badly. Impoverishment of nations through energy prices and inflation will seriously undermine the western capability to resist/confront Putin.
#Armchairgeneral - re-examining the information war.
Using the Prague Spring of August 1968 as a template for events in #Ukraine
Image: BBC
Using the Prague Spring of August 1968 as a template for events in #Ukraine
Image: BBC
During the night Russian forces invaded Czechoslovakia and Red Army armoured forces entered Prague. The Russian pretext was the counter-revolution had to be stopped to prevent a massive breach in the Warsaw Pact. Echoes of NATO and #Ukraine
Image: BBC
Image: BBC
The Soviets targeted media outlets - television and radio - and skirmishes erupted - people were killed. However, retaining control of the TV and Radio, the Czechs could send out stories and images of the invasion - in effect choreographing their victimhood.
Images: Czech TV
Images: Czech TV
Putin and an aspect of brutalisation of Russian society. This short thread looks at youth sometimes overlooked when examining Putin’s use of low-level violence and soft power in his geopolitics.
#Ukraine
#UkraineWillResist
#Ukraine
#UkraineWillResist
During the 2016 European championships, Russian football hooligans burst into the global arena of football violence. Within hours Putin had made a comment about the hooligans, which one British newspaper headlined.
Around that time, commentators were fixated on the old tropes of troubled youths and outcasts. They saw the gang culture as nationalistic, but not entirely state sponsored. These foreign reports overlooked Putin’s deliberate radicalisation of youth through the Nashi movement:
