@ClarkeMicah indulging in his dreary pro-Putin apologia again, this time in @spectator 1. Britain is a large country with a tiny army, not the other way round. In case you haven’t noticed, our defences are currently smaller than a fig leaf. 2. CGS is being sensible in warning that Britain, as part of NATO, needs to be ready for war. We have a dangerous conflagration on our borders. Wildfires have a habit of spreading. 3. No British general is advocating war or making policy. This is a silly straw man. In fact, it’s daft. If you really think that the MOD has any power look at how little they’re received in funding rounds since 1990. 4. Ukraine was invaded by Russia in 2022, with the first seizure of its sovereign territory in Crimea in 2014. Ukraine may have its faults, but it didn’t invite invasion. Nor is it responsible for the daily death of its citizens: Russia is, wholly and completely. 5. Britain is 100% right to support the sovereignty of a country that has been egregiously attacked by its neighbour. 6. Our friendship with the USSR from June 1941 was political and pragmatic; to defeat Hitler. 7. Russia is not ‘mysteriously our enemy’. It’s pretty clear why it is our enemy, with its aggrandising attitude to Ukraine and its relentless prosecution of an unnecessary war. But you know all these arguments, and will stand blithely by your own.