THE RECKONING….

According to the ‘news’ papers Trump has thrown Zelenskyy under the bus so the Ukraine war is over!

Reality check: the war is ending because NATO and Ukraine are being destroyed on the battlefield. The USA wants to cut and run and blame Joe Biden for the mess. It is telling NATO Europe to start spending its own money on defence.

Under Biden the USA was the guardian of the international ‘rules-based’ order. NATO was its European division. Britain was instrumental in supporting its eastward expansion and provoking a war against its historic enemy that relied on endless US support and Ukrainian fight. The aim was to ‘weaken’ Russia.

The initial thrust was to be economic. Russia would be brought to its knees by sanctions before being finished off on the battlefield.

It all failed. In every sense Russia has outperformed the collective west.

Russia’s warfare strategy is encapsulated in the ‘Gerasimov’ doctrine – written by the current head of the Russian armed forces way before this conflict began. Didn’t our Generals bother to read it? Did they simply believe their own propaganda?

There is a lesson for Britain here: we really need to rethink our role in the world and fashion our military accordingly. We should develop a real defence strategy that acknowledges that the days of being a global player have gone.

‘Our’ two white elephant aircraft carriers and the idea of a 100year alliance with Ukraine subsidised to the tune of £3 billion a year exemplifies the current fairy tale thinking.

We need a military capable of tackling bread and butter threats that may face the country such as climate change and the chaos this will bring. We need a Europe wide security pact that involves all countries including Russia to ensure peace in our region. To achieve this, we need to understand the position of those we seek to make agreements with – not demonise them because we can’t get our own way.

Our current politicians are subalterns to the old officer class – the comprehensive school alternative to the public schoolboys that have determined Britain’s approach to the world for the last 100 years imbued in a culture of lazy superiority and crass bullying.

The real tragedy is that the subalterns try and mimic the officer class. It is embarrassingly pathetic, and they are very bad at it.

We need a completely new approach. We should challenge the nonsense of the inherited Empire syndrome that has resulted in a confusing Foreign Policy and a military at odds with what is needed.

The idea that we have a God-given right to direct the world using our ‘special relationship’ with the USA is at the heart of our recurring Foreign Policy mishaps.

This hubris is infused with ruling class superiority of the kind that falls back on crude propaganda when it is found wanting – ‘we are winning’, and the enemy are ‘inferior low-life’ forced to attack in ‘human waves’ armed only ‘with shovels’.

It’s over. Ukraine changes everything.