...I admire the man's courtesy if nothing else!

While I most certainly would not believe for a moment I'm in a position to contradict Gen'l Shirreff, I have to wonder if Putin's military isn't the same hollow fart-bag it was when it was the Soviet military.

While that certainly does not at all mitigate the unpreparedness of Britain's military, I tend to believe the threat to be more of a protracted one than one of overpowerment. That in and of itself is a far bloodier affair perhaps and one more at risk of the deployment of "warfare by other means", limited and dirty NBC warfare a more possible scenario in my mind. I rather see a repeat of the "Third World War" scenario from the 1980s, brought up to date technologically, and even muddier, bloodier, and strewn with bone and arse and burnt out Euro-scape.

I also have to wonder if Putin shuffling off this mortal coil will end his brand or if it will politically continue.

Still, NATO west is not prepared while NATO east is a force to be respected, at least conventionally. US muscle cannot be relied upon at least for the next four years unless the European nations make it appeal to Trump (or is it Musk pulling Trump's strings). Perhaps enough to merely pay the Yanks to be NATO's mercenaries and the world's police force.

On that last one, do the Yanks have a legitimate bitch? They certainly think poorly of watching nations, especially in Europe, worry about their own deficits whilst appearing to not give a toss about the Yanks and their's, in part one worsened by foreign obligation. Admitting the truth that this perception exists in Trumpland certainly and in America generally, perhaps it's enough to talk about footing some of the bill for the Yanks to supply some of that preparedness the NATO G7 members don't have and can't instantaneously rectify.

Idle thoughts from one long out of the game, of course...