Are We Feeding the Industrial Arms Complex to Fight a Paper Tiger

If Ukraine Is Winning, Why Are We Sacrificing to Fund the Arms Industry?

Volodymyr Zelensky has openly declared that Ukraine’s military incursion into Russia’s Kursk region aims to create a buffer zone to prevent further attacks by Moscow. This is the first time the Ukrainian president has clearly stated the objective of the operation, which was launched on August 6. Previously, he had hinted that the aim was to protect communities in Ukraine’s bordering Sumy region from constant shelling.

In his nightly address, Zelensky said, “It is now our primary task in defensive operations overall to destroy as much Russian war potential as possible and conduct maximum counteroffensive actions. This includes creating a buffer zone on the aggressor’s territory—our operation in the Kursk region.”

Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t Putin say something remarkably similar when Russia entered the Donbas region to “stop an eight-year Ukrainian civil war”? That one seems to have been buried deep in the memory hole…

Fast forward to today, and Ukrainian forces have captured hundreds of square miles of territory inside Russia, marking one of the most significant incursions into Russian territory since World War II. Thousands of Ukrainian troops stormed over the border from Ukraine’s Sumy region into Russia’s Kursk region on August 6. Since then, Kyiv’s forces claim to have seized more land in just over a week than Russia has in Ukraine during the entire calendar year. It’s the largest foreign attack on sovereign Russian territory since the Second World War.

Ukraine’s army chief, Colonel General Oleksandr Syrksyi, announced on Thursday that his forces had captured nearly 445 square miles (1,150 square kilometres) of land in Kursk. For context, that’s almost three times the amount of territory they retook in occupied Ukraine during their three-month counteroffensive last summer.

Zelensky has commented on the almost two-week-old offensive into the Kursk region, asserting that his troops are meeting their objectives. “We are achieving our goals. This morning, we have another replenishment of the (prisoner of war) exchange fund for our country,” he said. His remarks were swiftly backed up by Ukraine’s top commander Oleksandr Syrksyi, who echoed, “We are achieving new results in the Kursk region and have replenished the exchange fund.”

Ukraine’s Struggle, UK’s Sacrifice: The Real Cost of Starmer’s War Machine

But here’s the million-pound question: If all this is true—if a rag-tag army sponsored by foreign aid can push so far into Russia—why on earth are we here in the UK committing billions to our own defences and sending billions more to Ukraine? Are we really fighting a paper tiger?

And that brings us to the crux of the issue…If Ukraine is doing so well as a stand-alone country why are we upping our NATO contributions to £85 billion a year while the rest of the country goes to ruins?

And make no mistake the UK’s in a right pickle, we’re set to shiver through a cost-of-living crisis this winter, and there’s going to be plenty of empty plates. So what’s our supposed Labour government doing? Starmer’s lot have rolled over for the neoliberal agenda faster than you can say “austerity.” They’re even pinching the winter fuel allowance from our pensioners, for heaven’s sake! Whatever happened to looking after our own?

If we are to believe the news, Ukraine’s not just holding back the Russian bear; they’re giving it a proper thrashing with their Kursk incursion. Prime Minister Starmer has committed to giving Zelensky and his GoFundMe campaign £3 billion a year for, I quote, “however long it takes.” So far, that adds up to £12.5 billion in support to Ukraine since February 2022, with £7.6 billion going towards military assistance, including £3 billion for military aid in 2024/25.

It brings to mind old Eisenhower’s parting shot about the military-industrial complex. The man knew a thing or two, didn’t he? He warned us about feeding the war machine instead of the people, and look where we are now.

The Paper Tiger

If Russia can’t even subdue Ukraine, what does that say about this supposed threat to Europe? Again, if we are to believe the news—and let’s face it, that takes a lot of faith—Russia is looking more and more like a paper tiger every day.

So again the question must be: “Why are we still emptying our pockets into NATO’s coffers?” That’s 2.5% of our GDP, mind you at the moment that’s over £75 billion on defence. Think what we could do with that money—fix our crumbling schools, breathe life back into the NHS, maybe even patch up a pothole or two.

“If we can find the money to kill people, we can find the money to help people.”

― Tony Benn

Let’s look at the facts: Ukraine, with a fraction of the resources of its massive neighbour, has not only fended off Russian aggression but even managed to strike back. They’ve done this without the full might of NATO behind them. So what does that tell us about Russia’s supposed military prowess? And more importantly, what does it say about the necessity of NATO?

Oh and don’t “come the old soldier” about patriotism. I’m an old soldier and as such we all understood NATO’s job was done way back in 92 and so did Prime Minister Starmer who didn’t hold back, while Secretary of the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers, the group passed a resolution calling on “Britain and other capitalist countries” to disarm.

The Haldane Society’s 1989 motion wasn’t just sensible; it was prophetic. They saw that human rights and bloated defence budgets were as compatible as oil and water. But our current crop of politicians, Starmer included, would rather play war games than tackle the real threats of climate change and inequality.

It’s a sorry state of affairs when yesterday’s radicals become today’s defenders of the status quo. Starmer’s journey from calling for disarmament to cheerleading for NATO is a betrayal not just of his past self, but of the very principles that once defined the Labour movement.

So, ‘no don’t’ “come the old soldier” about patriotism. True patriotism isn’t about waving flags or rattling sabres. It’s about building a country worth living in, one that chooses books over bombs and hospitals over warheads. Until our leaders rediscover this simple truth, we’ll remain stuck in a dangerous dance with outdated alliances and nuclear nightmares.

The motion essentially backed scrapping Britain’s nuclear deterrent and leaving the Nato defence alliance.

It added that the Labour Party should “adopt a non-nuclear, non-aligned defence policy as the precondition for the preservation and extension of human rights”.

The group claimed the policy was “key to victory at the next general election”.

The motion as passed was printed in issue No9 of the Socialist Lawyer publication in autumn 1989.

10. Soviet Peace Proposals
The Haldane Society welcomes the announcement by President Gorbachev at the United Nations on 7 December 1988 that the Soviet Union would, on the first anniversary of the treaty eliminating intermediate and short range nuclear missiles, unilaterally reduce its conventional forces in Warsaw Treaty countries by 50,000 persons and 5,000 tanks.

The Haldane Society demands that Britain and other capitalist countries follow suit by abandoning weapons and strategies of genocide; and urges the Labour Party to adopt a non-nuclear, non-aligned defence policy as the precondition for the preservation and extension of human rights, and the key to victory at the next General Election.

It was that year the Soviet Union started its collapse.

At the time the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact consisted of 31 countries stretching from China to East Germany facing 12 NATO countries stretching from North America to West Germany.

Today NATO consist of 31 countries stretching from North America to the borders of Russia, yet we are supposed to believe Russia poses a threat to the UK…

We’re told NATO is essential for our security, a bulwark against Russian aggression. But if Russia can’t even subdue Ukraine, what threat does it really pose to the combined forces of 31 nations? It’s starting to look less like a defensive alliance and more like a very expensive insurance policy for a risk that doesn’t exist. And let’s not make any arguments about Russia’s nuclear capabilities—as it stands, no matter how big NATO gets, you only get to blow up the world once.

And for those who argue that if Ukraine falls, the rest of Europe will follow, here’s a question: If Putin’s grand plan was really to conquer Europe, why didn’t Russia make a move when NATO was bogged down in its decades of war in the Middle East, Iraq, and Afghanistan?

But here’s the rub—we all know what this is really about, don’t we? This isn’t our war; it’s Biden’s. It’s about gas and energy. It’s a cover for corruption and lies. It’s the terrible deaths of countless Ukrainian and Russian sons and daughters. It’s BlackRock’s latest investment opportunity. It’s feeding the industrial arms complex and its investors.

And when the dust finally settles, guess who’ll be left holding the bag? That’s right—us. You can bet we’ll be paying not only the butcher’s bill but the price for peace as well.

Meanwhile, Starmer and his lot seem to have forgotten what the ‘Labour’ in Labour Party means. They’re so busy trying to look ‘responsible’ to the moneymen that they’ve left the rest of us out in the cold—quite literally, in the case of our pensioners.

It’s high time we asked some hard questions. Why are we sacrificing so much for a threat that seems more imaginary by the day? Why are we letting our own people struggle while we pour money into a conflict that’s not even ours?

We need to wake up and smell the coffee. This isn’t about defence anymore—if it ever was. It’s about keeping the war machine ticking over, keeping the fat cats fat while the rest of us tighten our belts.

Isn’t it time we put our own house in order? Fix our schools, fund our NHS properly, look after our pensioners, and maybe, just maybe, give the working people of this country a fair shake? Or are we going to keep playing soldiers while Rome burns?

As Tony Benn once said, “If we can find the money to kill people, we can find the money to help people.” Yet here we are, three decades on, still pouring billions into weapons while our NHS gasps for air and our schools crumble.

Of course, the reality is we all know this is a US proxy war. Biden’s big cover-up and they will fight it till the last Ukrainian…

We can go along with the propaganda, it’s your call, folks. But remember, when the music stops, we’ll be the ones left without a chair. And that’s a fact.