William Clouston: No case for direct military intervention by Britain’s armed forces
Amid all the hot air being expelled over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, SDP leader William Clouston has written a thoughtful statement which I believe will be of interest to readers of Bournbrook. All our pronouncements should be made on the understanding our influence – along with our ties to Ukraine – is limited while the pain we will suffer as a result of our own response is likely to be significant.
“The Russian Federation should immediately desist from all military action and to withdraw its forces from Ukraine. We should know from recent experience that military adventures and invasions have proved disastrous.
“While deploring Russia’s actions I don’t believe any case can be made for direct military intervention by Britain’s armed forces. Immediate priority should be given to strengthening Nato and, in particular, supporting our allies such as Poland, Hungary and the Baltic states. However, there must also be a realisation that too many Nato members act as ‘free riders’ and fail to honour the pledge to spend two per cent of GDP on defence. Going forward, this commitment should be a condition of NATO membership.
“Economic and diplomatic sanctions should be considered but we need to bear in mind that Russia has made itself largely immune to such action – as the post-2014 EU sanctions have demonstrated. Russia has low debt and huge foreign currency reserves, and has ultimately made itself into a semi-autarky. At the same time, retaliative sanctions by Russia involving gas supply would economically cripple Europe. Western policymakers must work with this reality.”
Since producing this statement, Mr Clouston has published the following message on social media – may more understand this, too.
