Europe’ generals are warning people to prepare for war

But Western European societies are in denial.

- 

“We have to accept losing our children.” For France’s citizens, the statement in November by General Fabien Mandon, head of their armed forces, fell like a thunderbolt.

The possibility of a conflict with Russia by 2030, he said, meant that everyone — not just the army — had to be ready; France would be vulnerable if it was not prepared to suffer. Yet his words were met with indignation and incredulity.

Western Europe is struggling to grasp that it is living “in a space between peace and war”, as Ms Blaise Metreweli, Britain’s spy chief, put it on Dec 15. For countries close to Russia — especially the Baltics, Poland and the Nordics — the concept of “war readiness” is well understood. But in capitals like Paris, which is closer to Algiers than to Kyiv, the threat feels distant: something to watch on the small screen.

Hence the alarm from security chiefs. On Dec Il, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said darkly that “we must be prepared for the scale of war our grandparents or great-grandparents endured”. Days later, Air Chief Marshal Richard Knighton, head of Britain’s armed forces, declared that security “cannot be outsourced only to the armed forces”.

Such warnings are dismissed as scare tactics by some opposition politicians. Mr Fabien Roussel, leader of France’s Communist Party, called Gen Mandon’s speech “intolerable warmongering”.

European governments, however, are beginning to respond, in two broad ways. First, by reintroducing some form of military service. Second, by preparing civilians for conflict.