THE new Chief of the General staff, Sir Patrick Sanders, yesterday urged that Britain must be ready to fight Putin, comparing the present situation to the run-up to WWII – the so-called ‘1937 moment’ for Britain – when Neville Chamberlain worked for a deal with Hitler. The general wants a war with Russia not a deal!
He insisted that the will to ‘act rapidly’ is the only way to prevent Russia’s ‘expansionism’ ending in an all-out war in Europe. He added: ‘We must therefore meet strength with strength and be unequivocally prepared to fight.’
General Sanders also cautioned not to underestimate Russia, saying that it had a track record of starting wars ‘badly’ but could ‘still ultimately prevail’. He said: ‘Because Russia wages war at the strategic and not the tactical level, its depth and resilience means it can suffer any number of campaigns, battles and engagements lost and yet regenerate and still ultimately prevail.’
He added: ‘We don’t know how the war in Ukraine will end, but in most scenarios Russia will be an even greater threat to European security after Ukraine than it was before.
‘The Russian invasion has reminded us of that time-honoured maxim that if you want to avert conflict you had better be prepared to fight.’ The will to ‘act rapidly’ he said, is the only way to prevent Russia’s ‘expansionism’ ending in all-out war in Europe.
The general’s call to arms came after NATO declared it is surging the number of troops on high alert from 40,000 to 300,000, and sending more heavy weaponry to its eastern flank. The Alliance’s Secretary-General, Jens Stoltenberg, called it ‘the biggest overhaul of our collective defence and deterrence since the Cold War’.
General Sanders says his focus is on mobilising the army to help prevent the spread of war in Europe by being ‘ready to fight and win alongside our Nato allies and partners.
‘In all my years in uniform, I haven’t known such a clear threat to the principles of sovereignty and democracy, and the freedom to live without fear of violence, as the brutal aggression of president Putin and his expansionist ambitions,’ he said.
‘I believe we are living through a period of history as profound as our forebears did … This is our 1937 moment. We are not at war – but must act rapidly so that we aren’t drawn into one through a failure to contain territorial expansion …
‘I will do everything in my power to ensure that the British Army plays its part in averting war. I will have an answer to my grandchildren should they ever ask what I did in 2022.’
General Sanders again cautioned that Russia has a track record of starting wars ‘badly’ but could ‘still ultimately prevail’ … While Russia’s conventional capability will be reduced for a time at least, Putin’s declared intent to restore the lands of historic Russia makes any respite temporary and the threat will become even more acute.’
Despite the recent emphasis on new capabilities, such as drones and cyber warfare, he said that land forces would remain crucial in any conflict, adding: ‘You can’t cyber your way across a river.’
The general, who became Chief of the General Staff last week, addressed all ranks and civil servants in an internal message on 16 June, seen by the BBC.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine shows the need ‘to protect the UK and be ready to fight and win wars on land’, he said.
He added the army and allies must now be ‘capable of … defeating Russia’. Sanders also noted in the message that he is the first Chief of the General Staff ‘since 1941 to take command of the army in the shadow of a land war in Europe involving a major continental power.’
He added: ‘Russia’s invasion of Ukraine underlines our core purpose – to protect the UK and to be ready to fight and win wars on land – and reinforces the requirement to deter Russian aggression with the threat of force.’
He noted: ‘The world has changed since the 24th February and there is now a burning imperative to forge an army capable of fighting alongside our allies and defeating Russia in battle.’
However, the UK working class does not support an imperialist war against Russia that will bring colossal rises in the cost of living and turn workers into paupers.
It was Lenin who put forward the slogan of ‘turn the imperialist war into a civil war’ that led to the successful Russian revolution.
The UK working class will overthrow the British ruling class rather than see its lives shattered by an imperialist war to destroy Russia for the benefit of the capitalists!
