The Reckless Saber-Rattling of British Government Ministers Over Russia Must End

It is almost as if Britain's elite public school system decided to stop teaching history when Michael Fallon and his colleagues were being educated; although in parenthesis critics have long argued that the British public school system is less concerned with education and more with indoctrination when it comes to inculcating the progeny of the nation's elite with the born to rule ethos that sits at the heart of a class system that is every bit as rigid today as it was in the 18^th and 19^th centuries.

How else are we to fathom the fact that politicians and leaders, educated at the most expensive schools and universities that Britain has to offer, can so easily dismiss the devastation and destruction wrought by the First and Second World Wars?

Ready to go to war with Russia? Are these people actually mad? Do they think this is a game?

Michael Fallon and his ilk are truly playing with fire with this kind of rhetoric.

The British people are in no mind to go to war with Russia or anybody else, regardless of the efforts of Mr. Fallon and his colleague, Boris Johnson, to inflame the supposed threat to the security of the British people posed by their Russian counterpart. In contradistinction, they know full well that the current deplorable state of relations between both countries is entirely down to British and western politicians working to place a "cordon sanitaire" around Russia in Eastern Europe in pursuit of a hegemonic agenda that has no place in the second decade of the 21^st century.

The uplift in inflammatory language by British Government ministers is even more inexplicable when we consider that it comes at a time of year when people across the UK remember and pay homage to those who have died fighting its wars — culminating in the annual ritual of Remembrance Day in London — a time when the nation is meant to come together to mourn their loss, honor their sacrifice, and presumably learn the lessons of the past to ensure that no succeeding generations of young British men have to be sent off to kill and be killed.

At such a time it would constitute astonishing complacency to think that nothing as devastating as either the First of Second World War could occur in Europe again. This is why it is incumbent upon ministers and leading politicians to work to reduce tensions rather than deepen them, else we reach the point of no return.

Russia is not the enemy of Britain, France, the United States or any other country for that matter. But neither is it a colony of any other country; and neither can it accept its legitimate security and national interests being violated or ignored by any nation or bloc of nations that believe themselves to exist at the top of a global hierarchy that is incompatible with the UN Charter or the principle of national sovereignty.

And just to remind Mr. Fallon and his colleagues, sovereignty is not a gift of the West to be bestowed or taken away at its behest, even though such a state of affairs is what we have had for the past three decades. It is unacceptable, untenable, and the root cause of the current crisis.

On a more prosaic level, Russia is not Iraq, a country attacked, invaded, and occupied in 2003 after being starved over 13 years of the most brutal economic sanctions of modern times. Russia is a country of 145 million people and an advanced industrialized economy. Its military comes second only to the US in terms of size and is equipped with some of the most advanced weaponry and weapons systems ever developed. It boasts 800,000 men under arms, not counting reserves, and as it has proved vis-a-vis Syria, it is more than capable of projecting and deploying its military power across the world. It is also a major nuclear power, thus ensuring that it is not a country anyone should consider going to war with lightly.

The fact that anyone should need to point this out to a British Defense Secretary is astonishing.

The problem is not and never has been Russian aggression.

It is and has been from the outset western aggression in attempting to expand NATO up to Moscow's borders with the intent of forcing it to submit to Washington's writ.

The fact this is being attempted at a time when religious fanaticism and terrorism is a clear and present danger to us all reveals that at this juncture, western governments are not operating in the interests of the security of their respective populations, but rather in the interests of an ideological mindset rooted in domination rather than democracy or diplomacy.

The British people are in desperate need of political leaders with the wisdom and ability to reset relations with Russia on grounds of mutual respect and understanding.

The last thing they need is a continuation of the reckless sabre-rattling that has become the default position of some politicians and leaders — sabre-rattling consistent not with 21^st century values but 19^th century colonialism.

The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Sputnik.