One Michael Heseltine agreeing with your position on bringing in Russia as an ally against Islamist threats, Warbler.
I say Islamist threats which is a bit vague but you get my drift I hope.
He see's the threat of ISIS etc as Europe's biggest challenge, and disagreed with Michael Fallon over his comments on Russia.
I think the secret here is the natural inclination of the Russian people and its governments. They are much more inclined towards nationalistic chauvanism than they are communism. The Bolsheviks only came to power when nationalism had completely over extended itself to the point where hundreds of thousands of ill-equipped and ill-prepared Russians were being slaughtered to defend a Tsarist system that none of them had any stake in. On the outbreak of Barbrossa Stalin invoked similar sentiments when he rebranded it the 'Great Patriotic War' realising that in a crisis of pragmatism this was more likely to galvanise a population to fight than Marxist dialectics
What I see is Russia looking for a theartre to play in, and project themselves onto the world stage as a player. Naturally enough they're increasingly drawing a line at this encroachment into what they regard as their territory, and ultimately if this turns into a game of who it means most to, Putin won't be backing down in hurry. We could easily find ourselves boxing ourselves into a corner.
Cameron and Obama are behaving as if their appreciation of Russia begins in 1917, and they aren't looking back further at the more dominant Tsarist influences. I can accept that Russia under Putin is very much a candidate to lurch towards a blend of Russofascism and that this needs weighing into any deliberations before deciding which way to go - no problem - that's a known, unknown!. I would suggest however that the likelihood of them going off in this direction is greater if we move to isolate them. In any event, I think I'd rather deal with a future threat of political fascism propogated by a known nationstate like Russia with whom we have a dialogue of sorts, than I would Islamofascism which has a much greater capacity to find its way onto our own streets. I wouldn't regard a return to the cold war as a result, but that is probably the worst case scenario we'd have if we move to isolate Russia and they retrench. I think there is an accommodation to be reached with Russia so long as we stop our clandestine expansion plans and allow them to feel they're involved. They could go either way, but at the moment we're pushing them into a more autocratic route that threatens to marginalise them
There is also another issue of trust. I don't trust them unless their incentives and motives are aligned with ours. Mind you, I think you can apply the same analysis to the USA over history. The US has only ever come to support Europe when they've been sucked into doing so out of perceived benefit or forced retaliation. They were happy to keep out of WWII (unlike Canada) and leave us to fight Germany until they were attacked themselves at Pearl Harbour. In fact they were arguably worse than that, as they chose instead to instigate 'lease lend' and even when we did find ourselves on the same side allied in combat, we still had to pay them for that right into the 1980's. In other areas they didn't support us when their national interests had primacy (Suez) and for weeks they came perilously close to knifing us over the Falklands (Reagan was happy to do so to keep a fascist bulwark in South America, but was persuaded by Weinberger and Haig that he couldn't)
It just so happens though that a theartre is opening up that might be of interest to Russia. With Turkey showing no appetite to engage the northern fringes of the IS caliphate might the Russians have a role to play? I suspect this is where Heseltine is thinking, and if in a few months time another one is being declared in Africa we will need assistance
Heseltine is a former cold war Defence Secretary of course and is probably looking at the capabilities equally. Like me he's conlcuding that Europe outside of a few aerial bombing runs has hollowed out and couldn't actually do much. Italy (for all their astounding GDP figures) can only make available 5,000 ground troops. What's that about?. They're supposed to be a G8 country and serious NATO partner. That's risible. If it wasn't so serious I'd almost want them to try invading Libya for a laugh. They'd be driven back into the sea within a week (doubtless protesting that they can't do this to them because of their GDP figures!).
It sounds as if Heseltine has written Europe off as a credible offensive force. I think he's right to do so. We also have a series of particularly unreliable countries involved whose troops are massively inexperienced in combat situations. I can certainly see that Russian objectives could be aligned with ours should someone have the savvy to realise it and start that process. In fairness to the Germans and French they are trying, but the UK and US are makingit very hard for them
