@mikeclarke2020s
Defence and Security Analyst. Former Director General, Royal United Services Institute. Former Professor of Defence Studies, King's College London. Now Visiting Professor at KCL and University of Exeter and holds Fellowships at a number of institutions.
Personally, I'm not angry or somehow offended by the attitude. It's just the political and cultural reality we have to deal with. European liberal democrats have got to realise what's really important to them and hang onto those fundamentals.
Yes Nicole! He spoke today about 'our good friends in Europe'. After MSC 25, MSC 26, Davos, Greenland, beating up Zelinskiy, the Nov25 Nat. Sec Strat and then the Jan 26 Nat Def Strat - 'Europe' doesn't feel it has much of a friend at all in Washington these days. The MAGA people despise us.
This guy is not any sort of official adviser to Putin, but is well known to have inspired his thinking over many years. There's no way back for them, or us, to the pre-2022 world in Europe. New times entirely for us all.
Been speaking about this very issue at Sky News. If Eur (though not US) forces seize dark fleet tankers - which they should - they have to be able and prepared for Mocow to escalate into a bigger militarized incident. Happening before too long, I expect. (Patrushev's the arch nutjob in the Kremlin.)
A direct result of current US policy - Canada redefines its genuine friends. Important to European NATO that Canada is an intrinsic part of it.
🇺🇦🇸🇪🇫🇮🇺🇸Ben Hodges:“NATO would be better the day the Ukrainian flag is raised in Brussels. Just as we got better when the Swedish and Finnish flags were raised.”
Britain between two aggressors. The Kremlin wants to take us on as a lesson to other Europeans. The White House wants to take us on as an example of 'civilisational erasure'. Both trying to undermine our society & democracy. Must hold on, be confident in ourselves.
giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...
Not true. Babis is parroting the Moscow narrative that is taken up by all the Kremlin's allies and useful idiots in Europe. The 2022 Istanbul meeting is well documented. They weren't very close to a deal and it was finally scuppered when all the Bucha massacres came to light.
The CIA, without any explanation, has just cut any further publication of its annual 'World Factbook'. This has been used for years by the US and many others as an authoritative set of hard, mainly statistical facts about every country. Presumably the CIA has given up on bothering with real facts.
This is the line the Putin puppets across Europe are all taking. None of it is actually true. Ukraine can sustain its fight for a long time yet, if it's determined to do so - and that's entirely for them. They will get better in most dimensions of the war, whereas Russia is now at peak performance.
457 British troops lost their lives in Afghanistan.
Trump avoided military service 5 times.
How dare he question their sacrifice. Farage and all the others still fawning over Trump should be ashamed.
Some people think Trump's comments were a sort of tactic following the Davos climbdown. But I think his comments were actually just what they seem - freewheeling ignorance from an old man who is accorded Papal Infallibility by his followers.
bsky.app/profile/theg...
Maybe the President would like to chat to the 800+ families who lost someone helping support US policy in Afghanistan?
Death toll in Afghanistan when NATO answered the US’s call:
- 453 Britons
- 158 Canadians
- 89 French
- 59 Germans
- 53 Italians
- 44 Danes
- 17 Spaniards
“Stayed a little back, off the front lines “!
No one in the media will call him out over this lie or any of the others he spouts.
General view is that the trade bazooka is so big the EU won't use it as results may spiral. Maybe. But that was said about cancelling Nordstream 2 in 2022 after Russia's new invasion, and yet it happened. This challenge is different but just as important for Europe's future.
The parallels between Putin and Trump have become quite remarkable: imperialists, bullies, re-writing history, searching for motives to justify personal grandeur, surrounded by people too frightened to oppose them, out of control, and apparently losing grip on reality.
bsky.app/profile/maks...
I would challenge any Trump apologists to state what the security threat to Greenland actually is (and I mean real facts here) that can't be met already. If they really want to worry like this, then Alaska is far, far more at risk. Why not wet yourself about that?
www.ft.com/content/1dfa...
Military theatre of the absurdist genre. Sending troops we don't have to a place that doesn't need them, in an attempt to blunt the vainglorious project of a supreme narcissist who happens to be President of the US.
www.thetimes.com/article/80da...
We never know whether he has actually thought about these things before he says them. But if he really has thought about this little gem, it shows he has only a child-like view of how politics - any politics - actually works. My 18-year old under-grads were considerably better than this.
For Putin, President Trump is the gift that keeps on giving. He doesn't need to lift a finger to be presented with era-defining strategic gains for imperialist Russia.
www.thetimes.com/article/4bf1...
Many analysts are struggling to reconcile this sort of US military intervention, attacks on Iran, the Houthis, and threats to others with Trump's isolationist thinking. But this is best understood as 'strategic raiding' -short, sharp with quick pay-offs. Addictive...
news.sky.com/story/us-gen...
Conditions in Moldova are almost a carbon copy of the Donbas in 2014. Easily set up for Russian subversion followed by direct intervention. It's a spring-loaded trap that may begin to snap quite soon.
Read this headline initially as an example of extreme accuracy - until I realised what it really was on second look. Blaming the festive season for my gullibility.....
bsky.app/profile/maks...
The Trump Administration now aims to undermine the sovereignty of Denmark, one of its NATO allies. Copenhagen and Nuuk should refuse to speak with him except through the accredited US Ambassador to Denmark. And if he interferes with Greenland public, deny him entry.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Europeans are 'little pigs' said Putin. And, 'there is no civilization there, only degradation'. Looks to be consciously lining up with the Trump Nat. Security Strategy view of Europe. Europeans assaulted on all sides now. Need to be clear to ourselves what we stand for, and make it count.
Yes, proper journalism. Be there, see it, report it - whatever you see....
This was from an interview promoting @alexcrawfreports.bsky.social new “Hotspots” series “behind the scenes into some of the world's most hostile environments” on Sky News: youtu.be/-i90056QNHg
Another clip from that interview ⤵️
Excellent front line material from Stuart Ramsey and Alex Crawford in the new Hotspots format. Important to keep it real while we all discuss 'conflicts' in a detached sort of way...
An important The National Interest article on how Georgian Dream has turned Georgia into a key sanctions-evasion corridor fueling Russia’s war economy, while aligning with Moscow, Beijing & Tehran and escalating domestic repression.
Thank you, Nikoloz Chkhaidze!
nationalinterest.org/blog/silk-ro...
No way of telling whether MAGA America is - or will be - the real America. That's a 10-year struggle, it seems. But for now, the US sees itself as detached from the Tranaatlantic relationship. War in Europe is far more likely as a result.Trump isn't much of an ally any more, still less a friend.
