Western young have been cossetted

Five letters on the correspondence page (Post× 6/3/2024) express anxiety about the state of our democratic set-up here and elsewhere. This is no surprise considering the impact Lee Anderson and George Galloway have had, in their very different ways, on the electorate. But we face a greater threat from the endangerment of foreign democracies, particularly the USA.

As yet the USA is still the strongest and richest power in the world and therefore should be guided by the best leaders. But both candidates in the 2024 election are in their eighth decade and, are, for different reasons, of uncertain grasp and stability. The momentum of the distancing of America from the rest of the world is likely to increase. Anyone who thinks that Trump is basically a good man, if a little tactless sometimes, should watch the Jimmy Kimmel Show. One of his possible running-mates, Marjorie Taylor Greene, is already a legend in her own right. We will have to rely on ourselves and on our allies on this side of the Atlantic. Some states are already expanding their forces and modernising their weaponry.

But armaments are not much use without people to use them. This is the real problem. In two world wars men fought willingly for their country. Would their descendants do so now? Many do not want jobs at all anyway. And for generations they have ben told that ‘militarism’ is wrong. Student unions have forbidden army recruitment drives in their universities. Armies are associated with ‘imperialism’ and, as such, to be cast aside. The young are taught that their country is tarred with moral failure. By implication any country allied to it is also tarred.

Between 1936 and 1939 thousands of foreigners, including many Brits and Americans, went to Spain to fight in the Spanish Civil War. so many foreigners went to fight Franco and his Fascists that they had to be

organised into the International Brigade. George Orwell’s ‘Homage to Catalonia’ became a classic. Although some individuals have gone to Ukraine there has been no mass rush.

Our Western young have been cossetted and deferred to for so long that they would initially be unable to face discomfort, discipline and risk. How are we to remove the layers of conditioning in order to man the armed forces and use its weapons? Think back. When the Romans left Britain, the native inhabitants were unable to keep the invading Saxons out... Margaret Brown