Président Macron's speech tonight. (with English subtitles, I hope)

Quite possibly. Women would cover roles at home to allow male regular troops to fight. It’s not exactly unknown, my mum was called up in 1942.

No. Rape, bodily strength disparity, and the fact most women are mothers and therefore carers makes this impossible. Men won’t fight if there’s nothing at home to protect as their girlfriend/wife has been sent to the frontline and family split up.

Interesting point about signing up. The UK army is so small, if we were to enter a ground war with Russia, conscription would be required. Would this be 50% men and 50% women?

It is utterly insane that on a plant with billions of people so few have such power over the lives and deaths of the majority. We are at the mercy of their power whims. Greed and power.

So your solution is what, exactly? russia attacked Ukraine and potentially has its sights on other countries it previously occupied, who are now in NATO. America is no longer an ally. They're an openly crazy, hostile nation, led by mercantile warmongering mad men, squaring up to China of all places. Europe is weakened, unprepared, has been sitting long enough twiddling their thumbs and counting on America's help.

And with all that going on, we (collectively) should do what? Fingers in ears and lalala, nothing's going on, roses, butterflies and we wish for peace in the world? We can wish however much we want to, russia, China and US clearly disagree.

So we need to prepare, as this time no one's coming to save us.

WTAF? Why do you think your choice is between war or a fucking lockdown which by the way no one is ever going to fall for again.

why are you all applauding this war mongering talk, hasn’t it gone on for long enough? Rhetorical q.

it’s easy to cheer for a war when it’s not you on the front line or have you all signed up already

Yeah and of course China seizing the moment.

Europe has been appalling in all this, playing a game it cannot win without declaring itself as a player, for FOUR years people have died for no tangible results, isn't it enough now?

Quite a few Americans post on MN.

I agree with a majority of what you’re saying, except that Russia and America are allies. Trump thinks they’re allies but I bet Putin doesn’t. He knows he is in control. I bet he is rubbing his hands together now that China has said they will go to war with the US.

I try not to think about the ramifications of all the shenanigans, dangerous as they are. Cooler heads than mine in charge can do that for me.

Strangely though, I think Trump has lit a fuse under Europe and has awoken them from their dreamy slumber of directives for this and that obscure issue, all the while keeping the likes of Orban at the table.

Good. About time Europe woke up and this may be the catalyst for a stronger Europe eventually.

However there are bumps along the road for sure. Have to watch which way China acts, if at all.

Who would ever have thought that the US and Russia would be allies. Need to hear the views of Americans from non biased sources. Anyone know where that might be?

That's why fanning the flames is a really bad move imo.

I have a really bad feeling about this whole situation. It's just incredible how quickly things can change.

China and America squaring up to each other, Putin has declared war on someone new every other since he came to power, the whole world is in a state right now with all sorts of people declaring war. If Ukraine falls, Putin will turn on Poland as Russia has already hinted at.

I don’t know what else we can do. It’s very scary, but there are so many egos battling right now I don’t know that we will be safe sitting back.

Oh yes of course, someone who disagree is always extremely suspect, right?He's a sinister, manipulative little man. France has no money so he has to put the fear of God into us French to make palatable the coming cuts/taxes that he needs to finance defence spending. Let us not forget how very very minimal French participation has been into the Ukraine effort compared with our European and Nato partners. Talk has been cheap but now he has to pull his socks up so his way is scare tactics so his own country doesn't go up in flames. Again.

Found a translation, thank you. I’m heartened by the speech and it’s good to see such strong commitment to each other. It sounds like each country will be expected to utilise its own talents which will be interesting. I wonder what the UK contribution will be? I thought investing to make LMMs in Belfast was really clever.

Unfortunately there is a shift in the world order which we cannot ignore.

Tremendous speech. There is also the 'extraordinary' EU summit tomorrow in Brussels, which will be of immense interest now.

This is depressing. So France and Europe essentially being put on a war footing.. great.

Interesting first post on MN….

Hello JD

That's quite a speech.

When I play that link it’s dubbed in English.