The reasoning that the NATO countries should only focus on their own defence so should, as a consequence, not be providing support to Ukraine seems to lie at the heart of the argument from those who are prepared to appease Putin.

The truth is, of course, providing indirect support to Ukraine is also acting in their own defence.

We live in an ever shrinking world. One in which what happens on the other side reverberates here. How much more so when the event is on your doorstep?

The USA came to our aid during WW2 because it understood that what would happen in Europe if it didn’t would ultimately threaten them too. The creation of NATO subsequently was the practical embodiment of that realisation only then it was the USSR and not Germany where the threat existed.

Recently we have had a populist President undermining the whole idea of NATO. Someone who could still do damage and whose supporters are now trying political tricks to allow their support to continue. Is it any wonder that Putin organised support for Trump and interfered in the 2016 election in the way he did? Talk about 5th columnists! You don’t need to look very far!

I am as English as anyone else here but I have enough common sense to realise that ensuring our own peace and prosperity involves a great deal more than only concentrating on ourselves. I would love to think that Russia is a peace loving country we can trust and deal with. Maybe one day it will be, but not now. For now we must protect ourselves and our friends. Including those in Ukraine.

For the avoidance of doubt any comments in response to a previous post are directed to its ideas and not at any, or all, posters personally.

Let's not forget that we paid a price for that aid...... we had to give them the design for the jet engine and we repaid over £3 billion to the US and 2 billion to Canada from the end of the war to 2006.

I doubt that we will ever see anything back from Ukraine for our aid - except of footage of barely trained 'soldiers' indiscriminately firing millions of pounds worth of shells at indeterminate targets.

Forgive me if I resent my tax money being used for this.....

A stairway to Heaven and a Highway to Hell give some indication of expected traffic numbers

Do you resent any of your taxes being spent on defence? For this is essentially the same purpose. So far as I am aware we haven’t imposed conditions on the assistance offered to Ukraine. Remember the USA didn’t just send equipment. They sent men.

For the avoidance of doubt any comments in response to a previous post are directed to its ideas and not at any, or all, posters personally.

The idea that only those of fighting age are allowed to have an opinion on this subject would not only disqualify me but just about everyone here. Including he who suggested it. Yet another nonsensical idea.

Judging by the general attitudes on display here I care a great deal more about those struggling to pay for their weekly food than most. There is no virtue signalling involved. Just a cold hard look at priorities.

No one imagines that “the Russians are coming over the hill”! More nonsense. This is about the future, not about tomorrow. Therefore there is no immediate need for a spike in defence spending. We have NATO to protect us. However should Trump, or his lackeys in Congress, succeed in weakening NATO then that would change.

It’s almost as if Putin has been colluding with someone in the USA to achieve this! I wonder who that could be? It’s another reason, if one were needed, to make sure that Trump is defeated,

I am very English! I am also a human being and citizen of the world who has witnessed at first hand abject poverty and deprivation of a kind rarely if ever seen at home. Something few here seem to have any experience of at all. You can feel proud of your culture and heritage without losing sight of the need to try to help others and argue on their behalf. Some here appear to want to disregard these things completely and only concern themselves with here, seemingly believing that these things are either not real, not important or not our problem. Not only is this unfair and lacking compassion it is also shortsighted.

A new Cold War is very damaging, but if it happens it must be faced. You don’t offer appeasement to avoid a Cold War. There are bad outcomes and there are worse outcomes. Avoiding a bad one but ending with a worse one is the policy of fools who think only short term.

For the avoidance of doubt any comments in response to a previous post are directed to its ideas and not at any, or all, posters personally.

Don’t bother taking up chess.

You will notice that our regular know it all defends what he supports by assuming it would have produced a better outcome, just because the one that was used produced problems. He does exactly the same on issues closer to home too. Nothing is without consequences. When something hasn’t been done theories are cheap and easy.

All these oblique assumptions about “March 21st” (where do they come from I wonder) take no account whatsoever of the fact that Putin cannot be trusted and doesn’t comply with agreements. For sure there will eventually be negotiations that will end this war, at least for a while, but securing anything secure and permanent will only happen when trust is restored and there is no sign of that. Russia will have to be treated as a pariah until it is forced to realise that it’s best interests lie is establishing and maintaining trust. That won’t happen under Putin.

There is no other policy that makes sense. Of course people have identified and warned of the consequences but that doesn’t mean they could have been avoided, given who we are dealing with. Those consequences need to be faced and dealt with.

So to try to reach an accommodation with Russia would have been appeasement. Just because we weren’t, and still aren’t, actually at war with them doesn’t alter that. We weren’t at war with Germany when Chamberlain appeased Hitler, but we were as soon as the agreement was broken. Appeasement only benefits the appeased.

Why Biden is running is something of a puzzle but it has nothing at all with any desire to ensure he doesn’t go to jail. The judicial system might have more political influence in the USA than we are used to, especially at Supreme Court level, but Judges are still Judges first whose master is the law. Biden has nothing to fear from them, from all that has actually been seen so far. Trump on the other hand does.

The idea that Biden has caused more damage than Trump to the reputation of the USA is risible. Biden has enabled a sense of normality to return and for other leaders to know that they can anticipate a common sense response. Biden spoke about this a week or so ago when saying that he had received many requests from foreign leaders imploring him to ensure Trump does not return to the White House. I believe him.

For the avoidance of doubt any comments in response to a previous post are directed to its ideas and not at any, or all, posters personally.