We need Nato and US more than ever
The anti-Brexit brigade leapt on the Russian nerve-agent attack to warn that isolationist President Trump would not back us just as we are cutting ties with europe. Turns out Washington was among the first to support Britain, raising the attack at the UN Security Council and warning others that appeasement of Vladimir Putin now will lead to disaster later.
Who was slow to stand by our side? Callow French President emmanuel Macron, darling of the centrists and ‘aching liberals’.
The truth is America currently has two armoured brigades stretched like a tripwire from estonia to Poland. That alone represents more tanks than the British Army has on its books.
US Marines are exercising with Norwegian experts and our own Royal Marines to learn the cold-weather skills that they would need to confront Putin on Nato’s north-eastern flank.
We are leaving the eU, not Nato – and it is Nato that deters Russian aggression in europe.
In turn, Nato is undeprinned by the US military. Think what you will of President Trump but his Defence Secretary James Mattis is not to be trifled with.
Meanwhile, it could not be clearer that all Nato countries, including the UK, must raise defence spending. cLive bruce,
edinburgh. WhY on earth is the eU so complacent when Britain has been attacked so blatantly by a foreign power?
And why doesn’t europe, with a population greater than that of the US, flex its muscles? It’s Russia that should tremble before europe, not the other way round.
Apart from France and Britain, europe doesn’t have a bullet between them. Time to start the greatest military build-up of modern times – or will it be another ‘peace in our time humiliation’? robert GrittoN, Newmachar, aberdeenshire. I DON’T think we’ll see Russian tanks at the english Channel ports or MiG fighter jets in the sky over edinburgh any time soon, but Britain should fear VLADIMIR PUTIN said the Commons debate on the Salisbury poisoning was ‘a circus’. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson is a clown, certainly. J. LiviNGStoNe,
Glasgow. cyber attacks and the gas taps being shut off as Vladimir Putin lashes out over sanctions.
It looks like we cashed that ‘peace dividend’ in too soon and ran down our armed forces. This has left our civilian infrastructure wide open to attack. SuSaN WaLker,
edinburgh.