Nearly everybody who visits this blog has lived a postwar life, untroubled by bombs or bullets. We haven't had to heed sirens before scrambling into air-raid shelters and we haven't had to wait for the knock on the door that precedes the sombre announcement that a loved one has died fighting for our country. We have been very lucky but peace is not something we should ever take for granted.
I copied the following from Yahoo News UK last week. The item was covered by all serious British newspapers.
Britain should be prepared to “train and equip” a “citizen army” that could take part in a land conflict, the head of the British Army has said, sparking fears over a third world war.
Tensions with Russia remain high amid the ongoing conflict with Ukraine and General Sir Patrick Sanders, the outgoing chief of the general staff, said that other countries are already “laying the foundations for national mobilisation” to counter the “Russian threat”. The military top brass said Britain should “train and equip the citizen army that must follow".
He added: “We will not be immune and as the pre-war generation we must similarly prepare — and that is a whole-of-nation undertaking. Ukraine brutally illustrates that regular armies start wars; citizen armies win them.” Sanders said he was not in favour of conscription – forcing citizens to undertake military service – but suggested that volunteers could sign up for a potential land war.
It might be said that General Sir Patrick Sanders has been a military man all his life, rather invested in the business of preparing for potential battles and even wars. However, that is not a reason for dismissing his warnings. Others have been suggesting the same thing - that World War Three may be just around the corner.
It is a scary prospect but it's not some crazy fantasy. Look at Putin and look at Kim Jong Un. Look at the possibility of a second term for Trump. Look at Iran. Look at the effects of climate change and the movement of people. This is not Nirvana. It is not La-La Land. Keeping some kind of peace since 1945 has been difficult enough over the last eighty years but stretching that out for another eighty years may be too much to expect.
What we have is so very fragile. It could easily fracture so that in the future people may look back and say - Those days between WWII and WWWIII - that was the best time for us, our golden age.
What do you think?
from Yorkshire Pudding https://ift.tt/ItyxG1V