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RAF jets scramble to intercept Bear


Coxford_lou
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Hmm, coincidence that this little warning happens the day after the Litvinenko inquiry starts throwing out quotes like "state sponsored nuclear terrorism"...

 

Not really, they run same story several times a year, every year.

Oct

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2814350/RAF-jets-scramble-intercept-Russian-bombers-North-Sea.html

Sept

http://utopiathecollapse.com/2014/09/20/raf-jets-scrambled-as-russian-nuclear-bombers-threaten-british-airspace/

June

http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/national/news/11285970.RAF_scrambled_to_intercept_Russians/

Edited by buctootim
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  • 3 weeks later...

Interesting backdrop to all this. The US wants to arm Ukrainians at the exact moment France and Germany are trying to cool it all down. There was talk last week in some of the commentary pieces about France and Germany's bi-lateral action (e.g. not involving the US) being a potential sea change in European politics. Putin made comments about the key decision maker in Western European foreign policy having "no border with any European country" recently. That must have rankled, because it is true.

 

Personally, I think our policy toward Russia has been disastrous, such as we've let it be decided by our friends in NATO. We keep talking about the value of perspective. I'm sure that we all see the accession of member states like Latvia and Lithuania as wondrous expressions of democracy, fruits of the West winning the Cold War. From a Russian perspective, it looks like naked imperialism eating into a historical buffer zone, particularly when NATO bases and artefacts of the missile defense (sic) system are being established in them. If Merkel and Hollande weren't already appraised of Putin's perspective, I'm sure their recent meetings in Moscow would have borne this out.

 

Personally, I wonder how much we need NATO anymore. It was established to protect the West from Soviet aggression and the very real threat of Stalin's brand of communism from propagating all the way to the Atlantic. Communism is over in Russia, and one would guess permanent worldwide revolution took a nosedive with it. Are Russia's objectives the same as the Soviets? I'd argue no. Why bother to occupy Western Europe when there is no need to? There isn't a Hitler or Mussolini on the continent, Europeans and Russians have seen enough of general war and even the EU combined would be mad to have a go. There is some form of democracy stretching from Brest to Vladivostock, and while some of those democracies are definitely more corrupt than others, and Russia would be high on that list, it's a different world. We're more valuable to Putin as customers than we would be as occupied and resisting subjects.

 

On the bombers, think this might just be Putin reminding us how fragile NATO is atm.

Edited by pap
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Good points pap. On this sort of subject, I believe history will look at the turn of the century just gone as time of a lot of change. UK withdraws massively from the top table and post WW2 era takes real shape. The EU clearly wants a pretty settled Russia on their door step. Of course. The US shifts its main focus to the Pacific and now the crazy Islamic threat in europes door step.

And of course China arriving at the very top of the world game. It will not be long before they have some real top military hardware to back up their enormous financial clout. No one can really keep them in check if their desires stand to spread even further. They already have half of Africa in the back pocket!!!

 

I see real value in a joined up EU approach to dealing with all of this but NOT at the expense of looking after ourselves (that line in the sand has probably passed)

 

The EU has too many "characters" for that to ever work and as it stands the NATO nations in Europe (which we are the lead) must provide the security to Europe from a different direction. How that happens I have no idea.

Edited by Batman
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I've been listening to Dan Carlin's Hardcore Histories, which I thoroughly recommend, even if you have to buy the earlier ones. He expresses a view quite often, that in 1000 years when historians are looking back on this period, they're going to look at this entire period of 1918 to mid 2100s as the world finally sorting itself out from the effects of (drum roll) The First World War.

 

It seems crazy, but history seems very compact when you're in it. Both you and I grew up with some of the consequences of the First World War, the Cold War being the most obvious example. From our perspective, the Russians have been enemies since forever. Over a wider timeframe, they've been rivals, but never the existential threat they were during the Cold War. The change in that country has been remarkable. In 1914, it was an autocracy on the verge of collapse, with a largely agricultural economy. In 2015, it is a democratic industrial nation with arguable super-power status. From tsars to communism to democracy, all within a century.

 

I think it's inarguable that by subverting the terms limit with his little puppet, Putin is making something of a mockery of democracy. One wonders how much help he gets from former associates. Historically speaking, dictatorial phases of government are nothing new in democracies during times of major upheaval. The title was used a couple of times during the Roman Republic, but the custom was to give it back once the necessary crises were averted. Even if Putin were of that mould, he's surrounded by crap at the moment.

 

I genuinely think that left to its own devices, Europe and Russia would probably get along fine. The situation in Ukraine was stirred up by the US (Victoria Nuland caught on tape in her f**k the EU moment) and the Germans, a very privacy conscious people after experiences in the East, already vexed about the Snowden revelations, are bloody annoyed at having to manage a situation where their US allies are arming the enemies of a historical enemy. The huge problem is of course, the potential dissolution of a US presence in the area if we all get along, or decide that they're doing more harm than good.

 

That's probably why post-perestroika US foreign policy basically amounts to:-

 

"That bear still asleep?"

"Yup"

"Poke it with a stick"

"It'll wake up. It was real angry last time and had those big claws, remember?"

"Poke it!"

 

-- poke

 

"Is it awake yet?"

"Nope"

"Poke it again"

 

-- countless pokes later

 

"The bear just bit me!"

"It's trying to take over the WORLD!"

Edited by pap
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The way the U.K. defence forces have been allowed to be almost reduced to nothing is IMHO

criminal. If such an enormous amount of money hadn't been borrowed and then given to other

countries the U.K. might have been able to keep a much better defence force. None of the

services can have all of their meager existing equipment fully able for use so how on earth

could Cameron spout the carp he did the other day. Totally clueless.

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The way the U.K. defence forces have been allowed to be almost reduced to nothing is IMHO

criminal. If such an enormous amount of money hadn't been borrowed and then given to other

countries the U.K. might have been able to keep a much better defence force. None of the

services can have all of their meager existing equipment fully able for use so how on earth

could Cameron spout the carp he did the other day. Totally clueless.

What do you think is an appropriate mission for the armed forces? Defence of the realm? Component of an EU army? A projector of power?

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Our defence budget has shrunk to about 2% of GDP - which is way too small imo. In 1982 the budget was around 5.4% - somewhere around 4% seems about right to me. I spend far more than 4% of my income on various forms of insurance.

Edited by buctootim
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