Wednesday, November 20, 2024

A EUROPA À DERIVA: COMO MATAR O LEÃO DE NEMEIA?

A continuidade do Aliás depende do seu merecimento, avaliado por comentários, críticas, sugestões, correcções, de quem o lê.

---

Russia-Ukraine war live: Italy, Spain and Greece follow US in closing embassies in Kyiv over threat of ‘significant attack’ - From

Suécia envia panfletos de preparação para a “guerra ou outras” crises inesperadas a todas as famílias.

Dois cabos submarinos no mar Báltico foram cortados. EUA apontam o dedo ao Kremlin  

Putin permite uso alargado de armas nucleares 

Nordic neighbours release new advice on surviving war

 

 "Se não podes vencer o inimigo, junta-te a ele", recomenda o provérbio antigo, certamente inspirado na estratégia de Hércules para liquidar o  "Leão de Nemeia" .
 
Pode a União Europeia, desprovida de capacidade bélica relevante, sem um comando unificado que lhe dê suficiente consistência táctica e estratégica,  vencer Putin e os seus amigos ou simpatizantes, alguns dos quais são membros da UE, a partir de 20 de Janeiro quando Trump e a sua trupe abandonarem os seus aliados desarmados europeus?
Hoje, penso que não pode,  e a primeira vítima, vergonhosamente traída é a Ucrânia, o primeiro resistente a cair, o mais traído de todos, Zelensky.
 
A Federação Russa, que ocupa, de longe, o maior território do planeta, tem cerca de 144 milhões de habitantes; a União Europeia, cerca de 450 milhões, mas esta não será uma guerra que possa ser disputada corpo a corpo; mais que a força e a determinação seria, pela primeira vez na história da humanidade, a auto destruição da espécie humana o resultado mais provável de uma guerra global, mais uma vez, e, definitivamente, iniciada na Europa. 

Alguém terá de ceder, alguém terá de assumir a ignominiosa posição de primeiro cobarde para declarar a rendição da Europa Livre. Não faltarão candidatos, Viktor Órban, indubitavelmente o mais credenciado, actualmente na presidência rotativa da União Europeia, aceitará orgulhosamente a incumbência de desempenhar o papel protagonizado por Pétain há 84 anos. 

Falta saber quem será Hércules no segundo acto desta tragédia maior.  
---
act. - Ucrânia realiza primeiro ataque na Rússia com mísseis britânicos

As forças ucranianas levaram a cabo um primeiro ataque contra alvos militares em território russo recorrendo a armamento britânico, avança a Bloomberg.Trata-se do primeiro ataque da Ucrânia contra a Rússia envolvendo o uso de mísseis Storm Shadow. A utilização destes mísseis na Rússia foi autorizada pelo Reino Unido em retaliação pelo destacamento de tropas norte-coreanas para a Ucrânia, onde se encontram a dar apoio às forças russas. Este episódio representa mais um passo na escalada da guerra, que atingiu esta semana o milésimo dia desde que Putin ordenou a invasão da Ucrânia em fevereiro de 2022. A semana tem sido particularmente tensa na região, depois de os EUA terem autorizado também o uso de mísseis norte-americanos na Rússia.Em resposta, o Kremlin alterou a doutrina nuclear para alargar o leque de possibilidades em que pode recorrer ao seu vasto arsenal nuclear. c/p - aqui

---

Alex Maxia
In Gothenburg, Sweden
TT News Agency/AFP A hand holding a yellow booklet in front of Swedish flags - it has the words 'Om krisen eller kriget kommer' on the front and an illustration of soldiers and a family 
TT News Agency/AFP
The new version of Sweden's pamphlet "In case of crisis or war" will reach letterboxes from Monday

On Monday, millions of Swedes will start receiving copies of a pamphlet advising the population how to prepare and cope in the event of war or another unexpected crisis.

“In case of crisis or war” has been updated from six years ago because of what the government in Stockholm calls the worsening security situation, by which it means Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The booklet is also twice the size.

Neighbouring Finland has also just published its own fresh advice online on “preparing for incidents and crises”.

And Norwegians have also recently received a pamphlet urging them to be prepared to manage on their own for a week in the event of extreme weather, war and other threats.DVERTISEMENT

During the summer, Denmark's emergency management agency said it was emailing Danish adults details on the water, food and medicine they would need to get through a crisis for three days.

In a detailed section on military conflict, the Finnish digital brochure explains how the government and president would respond in the event of an armed attack, stressing that Finland’s authorities are “well prepared for self defence”.

Sweden joined Nato only this year, deciding like Finland to apply after Moscow expanded its war in 2022. Norway was a founder member of the Western defensive alliance.

Unlike Sweden and Norway, the Helsinki government has decided not to print a copy for every home as it “would cost millions” and a digital version could be updated more easily.

“We have sent out 2.2 million paper copies, one for each household in Norway,” said Tore Kamfjord, who is responsible for the campaign of self-preparedness at the Norwegian Directorate for Civil Protection (DSB)

Norway's checklist includes longlife food and medicines including iodine tablets

Included in the lists of items to be kept at home are long-life foods such as tins of beans, energy bars and pasta, and medicines including iodine tablets in case of a nuclear accident.

Oslo sent out an earlier version in 2018, but Kamfjord said climate change and more extreme weather events such as floods and landslides had brought increased risks.

For Swedes, the idea of a civil emergency booklet is nothing new. The first edition of “If War Comes” was produced during World War Two and it was updated during the Cold War.

But one message has been moved up from the middle of the booklet: “If Sweden is attacked by another country, we will never give up. All information to the effect that resistance is to cease is false.”

It was not long ago that Finland and Sweden were still neutral states, although their infrastructure and “total defence system” date back to the Cold War.

Getty Images Sweden's Minister for Civil Defence Carl-Oskar Bohlin holds a copy of  the new version of the preparedness booklet "If the crisis or war comes". The pamphlet has a yellow cover and an image of a woman in army fatigues holding a large gun. 
Getty Images
Carl-Oskar Bohlin presented the pamphlet last month
 
Sweden’s Civil Defence Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin said last month that as the global context had changed, information to Swedish households had to reflect the changes too.

Earlier this year he warned that “there could be war in Sweden”, although that was seen as a wake-up call because he felt that moves towards rebuilding that “total defence” were progressing too slowly.

Because of its long border with Russia and its experience of war with the Soviet Union in World War Two, Finland has always maintained a high level of defence. Sweden, however, scaled down its infrastructure and only in recent years started gearing up again.

“From the Finnish perspective, this is a bit strange,” according to Ilmari Kaihko, associate professor of war studies at the Swedish Defence University. “[Finland] never forgot that war is a possibility, whereas in Sweden, people had to be shaken up a bit to understand that this can actually happen," says Kaihko, who's from Finland.

Melissa Eve Ajosmaki, 24, who is originally from Finland but studies in Gothenburg, says she felt more worried when the war broke out in Ukraine. “Now I feel less worried but I still have the thought at the back of my head on what I should do if there was a war. Especially as I have my family back in Finland."

The guides include instructions on what to do in case of several scenarios and ask citizens to make sure they can fend for themselves, at least initially, in case of a crisis situation.

Finns are asked how they would cope without power for days on end with winter temperatures as low as -20C.

Their checklist also includes iodine tablets, as well as easy-to-cook food, pet food and a backup power supply.

The Swedish checklist recommends potatoes, cabbage, carrots and eggs along with tins of bolognese sauce and prepared blueberry and rosehip soup.

Swedish Economist Ingemar Gustafsson, 67, recalls receiving previous versions of the pamphlet: “I'm not that worried about the whole thing so I take it pretty calmly. It's good that we get information about how we should act and how we should prepare, but it's not like I have all those preparations at home”.

One of the most important recommendations is to keep enough food and drinking water for 72 hours.

But Ilmari Kaihko wonders whether that is practical for everyone.

“Where do you stash it if you have a big family living in a small apartment?”

 

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Uma boa analise da situacao muito dificil na Europa.

Rui Fonseca said...

Obrigado Anónimo

Anonymous said...

Mais uma vez oportuníssimo.
Grande abraço Rui.