Fair enough, but I think you've also rather proved my point. I wasn't arguing Stalin was a saint, or that the Soviet Union was some sort of workers' paradise. It plainly wasn't. The Nazi-Soviet Pact happened. Soviet atrocities happened. The occupation of Eastern Europe happened. None of that is in dispute. My dad's point, which I happen to share, was much simpler. By 1945 the Red Army had destroyed the bulk of the Wehrmacht. Had Hitler not invaded the Soviet Union I very much doubt Britain survives the war as an independent great power in the form we recognise today. That doesn't make Stalin a good bloke. It makes him a deeply unpleasant ally who happened to be fighting the same enemy. As for Ukraine, reasonable people can disagree. My concern has never been whether Putin is a villain. He is. A right bastard in fact. My concern is whether the West has a clear idea of what victory actually looks like, what it costs, and how long we are prepared to keep paying for it. They are different questions. On Germany, I was relating my dad's views, not necissarily prescribing them for 2026. He belonged to a generation shaped by two world wars. A reunited Germany worried him far more than a weakened Russia ever did. History has probably proved him wrong on that point, but I understand perfectly well why he thought it. And on Switzerland, you're taking the analogy a bit too literally. I don't mean hiding Nazi gold in mountain vaults and flogging ammunition to all comers. I mean a country that places the security, prosperity and resilience of its own people ahead of grand projects abroad and endless foreign entanglements. As for loving Britain being hypocrisy, I would argue the exact opposite. It is precisely because I love Britain that I would rather see British governments spend more time fixing Britain and less time trying to fix everybody else. We can't even build a high speed railway , a serviceable tank or an aircraft carrier that works. As for my old man being wrong, well I'm afraid sir it's you against him and there are no prizes for guessing who wins that contest in my head. One final point. You say America saved everybody's arses. There is a lot of truth in that. Equally there is a tendency in the English-speaking world to view the war through a Hollywood lens. The Americans provided immense industrial muscle. The British held out when they stood alone. The Soviets bled on a scale that is almost impossible to comprehend. All three things can be true at the same time. Auschwitz lest we forget was liberated by Ivan but they were denied a place at the anniversary of their liberation whilst Ukraine raises monuments to those who actively and viscously partook. These aren't Kremlin talking point merely inconvenient truiths. Perhaps that is my real objection to all of this. The world is changing. China is rising and Russia is not going away and will always bee a miserable bastard with a huge appetite and ability to take pain . The West is not as dominant as it once was. At some point principle has to meet reality and reality tends to win.When you lose 20 million, like the Jews in Israel you get the right to be paranoid to the point of psychopathy. Anyway, we are probably not going to agree on this and that's fine. I know it's fiendishly hot in Thailand and you have far more time on your hands than I have - so enough for now !
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