The military and government say the risk of conflict is growing, but we may not be mentally ready for it

If the UK suddenly found itself at war, would you know what to do? Do you know what would be expected of you?

  • Zombie@feddit.ukEnglish
    333·
    10 days ago

    The UK’s most senior soldier has sounded the alarm. The Chief of the Defence Staff Sir Richard Knighton this week said the threat from Russia meant Britain was living through the “most dangerous” period of his 35-year career in the armed forces.

    Aye, the Richard Knighton that uses ChatGPT, CoPilot and gambling websites to determine his views?

    Forgive me if I’m not too worried about the supposed Russian threat. The threat that has been spun and beaten since the early to mid 1900s.

    If Russia were such a threat why do we keep reading that they’re emptying prisons, changing recruitment ages, and near economic collapse to sustain their conscription and invasion of Ukraine?

    The UK is in NATO and European defense agreements.

    This chief of defense is naught but a war hawk drumming up fear in order to gain money and/or power for him and his military industry mates.

    • blackn1ght@feddit.ukEnglish
      72·
      10 days ago

      Yep. They can barely make any progress against a country they share a huge land border with. How the hell would they launch a serious campaign against the UK? I really struggle to take it seriously.

      Russia’s a bigger threat in terms of espionage and sabotage to the UK and Europe.

      • thanksforallthefish@literature.cafeEnglish
        141·
        10 days ago

        How the hell would they launch a serious campaign against the UK? I really struggle to take it seriously.

        Russia’s a bigger threat in terms of espionage and sabotage to the UK and Europe.

        From the article

        But what is the threat? In 1940 the danger of a German invasion of the UK was very real. But the chances of Russian tanks rolling up Whitehall are surely negligible.

        “It’s not the tanks you need to worry about,” says historian Margaret MacMillan, author of War: How Conflict Shaped Us.

        “It’s the cutting of cables on the ocean floor. It’s the hacking into systems on which so many things depend. The possibility for asymmetric war, for cyber war, is growing by leaps and bounds.”

        Russia is winning the war they’ve been in with Western Europe for the last decade. Trump is in the White House, AfD just won the Saxony election. RN are on track to take the French presidency, Farage still gets 25% polling despite the rank corruption swirling around him.

        Russia won’t send troops anywhere until the country in question is deeply compromised. It’s hybrid warfare and the battle started years ago, and we’re doing a shite job of defending ourselves (because we have quislings on the inside helping them).

        Russia invaded Ukraine because Putain had been (falsely) told that the Ukrainians would welcome them with open arms.

    • FishFace@piefed.socialEnglish
      66·
      10 days ago

      Using LLMs to speed up summarising text is a good use of them, and in the comment you linked to you ignore that he first cites human analysts for the UK context. In that context, using crowd-sourced opinions (which are supposed to be made more accurate by allowing people with inside knowledge to bubble up to the top) to give a very rough approximation of the chance of conflict without the UK seems perfectly reasonable.

      Anyway, calling it the “supposed Russian threat” is idiotic, given that they’re already carrying out hostile acts against the UK and much of Europe. Or did you miss the assassinations, sabotage and drone attacks? That’s not the “direct attack” that is assessed as remotely possible - because it’s already here!

    • ruuster13@lemmy.zipEnglish
      23·
      10 days ago

      Your comment is parroting Russian propaganda. They have been happy to let Western money and tech flow into Ukraine the past 5 years because they want that tech for themselves. They fully intend to reclaim Ukraine and use its muscle to augment their army. At this point, Ukraine must win this war.

      • Johnny_Arson [she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
        7·
        10 days ago

        Oh spare us this thought terminating cliche, you liberals are insufferable. Everything they said is factually correct. Your govt is just beating a tired dead horse.

        Have you even once stopped to consider it is you who is uncritically swallowing your own state propaganda?