War may be coming. Are we psychologically ready?

piloto_ciego

War is already here, just at least in America we haven’t realized it yet.

blinkbat

it's funny to write a headline like this and put it behind a paywall. just objectively kind of funny.

net01

who would want to go to war with nato ? > china ? why ? they just want taiwan > russia ? lol, they can't even manage Ukraine ( with our aid ) > iran ? why ? they just want to kill you know who This is just a fearmongering article.

behole

https://archive.ph/YDwhy

epolanski

Kinda tired of all this warmongering and constant increasing of pressure on civil society. It does not help that we keep electing extremely selfish strong appearing individuals in winner-takes-all democracies.

pier25

Russia will never start an open war with the UK or any EU country. They can barely handle Ukraine imagine that plus any other country.

nickdothutton

It is my current view that this BBC article and the recent announcement by national security advisor Powell are conditioning the public mind not for an actual hot war, but for a "tough winter" of eye-watering price rises, possible shortages, and maybe even utility supply problems if we are particularly unlucky. While talk of war increases, a glance at the state of the military suggests to me this is unlikely. What we have is rather limited, and even that is only about 1% deployable within 6 months. Much of Europe the same (Poland being an exception). That said, I also believe that there is fairly widespread, low intensity, grey-zone action across Europe at the moment. Not every random fire or infrastructure failure is "The Russians", but I'd be surprised if none of them were. Indeed some of them have already been formally attributed.

largbae

Seems off-topic for HN, but let's look at it technologically: if Ukraine and Iran have demonstrated anything, it is that drones are like guerilla warfare squared: even the smallest player can land hits and deny areas to the largest forces. It might be tending towards impossible to achieve regime change militarily at this point. Maybe we all should just figure out how to get along.

justinhj

Russia is a nuclear power

ajb

This article shows the biasses of the press. Everything is about public perception, so the problem is that the public don't perceived that there might be a war. This is stupid, public perception can shift very quickly. The actual problem is not maintaining investment and critical industries. The UK was able to shift commercial manufacturing to wartime production for world war II. That doesn't work if you've offshored everything.

specproc

We've been in one war or another for most of my adult life. We are in a perilous position right now in Europe, very close to a major escalation of the Ukraine conflict. This would entail direct conflict between nuclear-armed powers. I find it deeply troubling that no mainstream party in most European countries seems to think this is a bad idea.

chmod775

> Threat from Russia Right. Mighty Russia that has been fought to a standstill by its much smaller neighbour is going to provoke a military alliance absolutely dwarfing it into outright war. Not even China is going to back that after having a look at who the more valuable trading partner is. Being ready for war is reasonable, being afraid or worried is a waste of time, and even irrational in this case.

DANmode

War is here. It is clear we are not generally physiologically ready.

nullorempty

Russian war with Europe would be ‘very short’ – Lavrov https://www.rt.com/news/645860-lavrov-eu-nato-putin/

mmooss

A major difference, IMHO, is the abandonment of the rules-based, rights-based, international order. Within it, international war (as opposed to civil war) was nearly impossible - it hardly existed for generations. While you need to prepare for the worst, you need to work for the best, for progress, like so many generations before us in much more difficult circumstances. Preparing for warfare doesn't mean accepting it; we must also work for freedom, including a just peace. It doesn't happen without work. Again in this era, reactionary and nationalist messaging has dominated and somehow, despite generations of extraordinary success, despite being born into it and seeing its success and superiority, many/most think such an order is infeasible or even undesireable. At the same time, I've seen American leaders in the military industry advocate for becoming accustomed to mass destruction and death. And shockingly, even the experts and practioners abandoned it and at nearly the height of its success. It's as if a messaging campaign insisted cloud computing was impossible and absurd, and so everyone just stopped using what was obviously working. For the rules- and rights-based order, yes there were outliers and setbacks and threats; that's life. But the entire free, wealthy, industrialized world subscribed, and were untouchably allied, free, safe and prosperous. Now, having abandoned it, all those things have diminished. What's missing is not acceptance of warfare but ultimate commitment and work for freedom and peace.

giardini

This is a British article for Britons. The British press is nuts: everything is taken to extremes: events, statements and political moves. Unfortunately, every day the USA press grows more like the British press, moving leftward and increasingly alarmist. Look at what happened to Drudgereport, It once supported Trump and now it's practically a British tabloid of its own. Take Rolf Dobelli's advice - don't listen to the news: https://www.dobelli.com/en/books/