The Telegraph: Macron tore up 65 years of doctrine to defend Europe with French nukes, with or without the US.
Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Greece, Sweden, Denmark, and now the Czech Republic will host French nuclear-armed Rafales. 1/
France holds 290 warheads, Britain 225. Their combined arsenal totals 515 weapons against Russia's 5,580 and America's 5,225.
Without Washington, Russia alone outguns Europe 11-to-1 in warheads. Macron's plan makes those 515 European weapons unpredictable enough to matter. 2/
Under Macron's "forward deterrence" plan, French Rafale jets carrying tactical nukes will rotate secretly through allied bases across Europe.
Britain's four Trident submarines and France's four ballistic-missile subs will maintain a continuous at-sea deterrent. 3/
Gen. Hertling: Trump keeps insulting NATO for not coming to the rescue in Hormuz, but this is not what NATO was built for.
NATO is designed mainly for collective defense in the Euro-Atlantic region — not a sudden Gulf naval operation. 1/
Hertling: If the U.S. Navy, the most capable naval force in the world, is hesitant to escalate its own direct maritime role.
Why would NATO ask European nations to rush into a more dangerous mission while they are already supporting Ukraine? 2/
Hertling: Coalition warfare requires consultation and trust, and we have broken trust with NATO.
You cannot surprise allies diplomatically and militarily, stumble into an operation without strategy or communication, and expect immediate participation. 3X
Tugendhat, Conservative MP: "The Kremlin is at war with Europe and its allies in Beijing are helping."
Russia has been conducting warlike acts against every European democracy for years, but Britain is asleep at the wheel — The Telegraph.
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2006 — Litvinenko poisoned in London.
2018 — Skripals poisoned with Novichok in Salisbury.
2024 — GRU plot to assassinate Rheinmetall CEO Papperger. Same year, incendiary devices disguised as pillows sent through DHL, nearly brought down a cargo plane over Europe.
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Estonia spends 3.4% of GDP on defence, committed to 5.4% by 2026-2029. Poland: 4.5%, rising to 4.8%. Lithuania: 4%, committed to 5-6%.
Britain: 2.4%.
Tugendhat: We have chosen not to believe in the devil. But he is alive and walks among us.
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Czech President Pavel: if Russia's violations of NATO airspace continue, the alliance will have to shoot down unmanned, or manned , aircraft.
Russia does not understand nice language. They mostly understand the language of power. — The Guardian. 1/
Pavel proposed asymmetric responses: switching off Russia's internet or satellites, cutting Russian banks from the global financial system.
"Not killing people — but sensitive enough to make Russia understand this is not the way they should go."
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Pavel on how Russia calibrates its provocations: When I asked them why they do provocative actions — overflights, close encounters over battleships in the Baltic — their answer was 'because we can.'
That's exactly the kind of behaviour we allowed.
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