David Lammy recently declared that ‘the post-Cold War peace is well and truly over’ and that the UK’s biggest threat is from Russia which he proposes to meet by ramping up military spending. He calls this new approach ‘progressive realism’. It’s more accurate to term it “regressive delusionism”
First, Russia didn’t act with impunity. The war was triggered by America’s determination for Ukraine to be a Nato member. The US wouldn’t tolerate Russian military bases in Canada or Mexico. In 2008 the American Ambassador to Russia warned that ‘Ukrainian entry into Nato is the brightest of all red lines for the Russian elite (not just Putin).’
Second, Ukraine can’t prevail. It has lost the war. Its economy is shattered. President Trump acknowledged that 700,000 Ukrainians have been killed.
Third, throwing more money at Ukraine, a notoriously corrupt country, won’t change the outcome.
Fourth, using Russia’s frozen assets to fund military aid is an act of economic warfare and will convince other nations that the US can’t be trusted, hastening the move away from the dollar.
The UK can’t defeat a nation with the world’s largest nuclear arsenal, second-largest army and fourth-largest economy.
Keir Starmer’s deranged ‘100-year security partnership’ with Ukraine commits the UK to £3 billion a year in military aid for ‘as long as it takes, and ongoing energy infrastructure support to help hospitals and community facilities provide light and warmth to innocent civilians impacted by Putin’s invasion’.
UK citizens would like their government to be on their side ‘for as long as it takes’ and provide ‘light and warmth’, especially the innocent pensioners impacted by Rachel Reeves’ axing of the winter fuel allowance.
Mr Starmer wants President Trump to keep the money flowing to Ukraine because he knows if Mr Trump turns off the tap, the UK will be up the creek without a paddle. The UK, the EU and Nato can’t replace US funding ($183 billion).
Keir Starmer and David Lammy don’t know the first thing about diplomacy, which is about coexistence with other states achieved by respecting and talking to them to resolve problems.
It’s up to the US to engage in progressive realism and leave the UK to sink in its regressive delusionism.
The above was a letter to the editor of The Herald (Scotland) from Edinburg resident Leah Gunn Barrett.