Nightmare

Last night, I descended into the depths of a harrowing nightmare, where the chilling specter of war haunted every corner of my subconscious.

In the eerie landscape of my dreams, I found myself visiting Serbia and in the middle of a war zone, desperately attempting to shield my loved ones from the merciless onslaught of violence. I was in a taxi and being taken to an underground car park and an area containing industrial plant and heating equipment for an office building above that had been razed by bombing. Local inhabitants were living a subterranean life of terror and taking shelter from incessant bombing and mortar attacks. On the street, mortars were flying into crowds. Some of the mortars were just empty shells, but some of them were armed and ripped people apart. You just never knew which mortars were real, but everyone was a weapon of psychological warfare designed to terrorize and destroy any human hope.

As often in dreams, the precise details were not clear. I did not know who was fighting whom?

But when I woke, the terror of this dream remained. It felt less like a mere dream and more like a prophetic vision, a dire warning whispered by unseen forces.

The location being Serbia is almost certainly due to an upcoming visit I will be making to Serbia. I am of an age where I remember well harrowing news reports about the brutal horrors of war in Serbia.

The vague terrors of my dream have now reformed into a premonition. One that it feels like only I can see and everyone else is either blind to or ignoring it.

My dream has left me feeling scared that Europe is just not ready to defend itself. It has enjoyed a protracted period of post-World War peace for so long that it is now sleepwalking right into an inevitability because it just cannot believe that the unthinkable can happen.

Russia is already at war with the West on the doorstep of Europe. It is marching on Ukraine with brutal ferocity and for all the post-truth postulating this is nothing other than Putin playing chess with the world to build a global dominating Russian empire.

China sits in the wings playing its cards close to its chest and we have little idea about its military strength or recent advances in its technical war machinery (software and hardware). China's overseas influence in places like Africa is another source of concern.

Tomorrow's world will not be a world of individual nations. It will be a world of empires: America, Russia, Asia, and Europe.

There will only be a place for Europe in a future world of empires if, when needed, it can act as one, most especially in its defense of itself within this new world order. It's not patriotism that waves national flags against the notion of a federal cooperative Europe but a primitive patriotism that is nationalism where "my country" is prioritized over "our world" and even our future.

If Europe fails to recognize the necessity for federalization and a unified standing army, then it may well wave goodbye to the very notions of freedom and democracy that it professes to hold so dearly.

In this new world of Empires, America may find it has to change course and decline to be the West's shield. America may not be relied on to defend the interests of Europe, especially under Trump (and they could have a Trump at any time). And in any case, why should America defend Europe if to do so carries the threat of nuclear detonations over its own cities?

Europe is not ready for war. I think it needs to be.

Brexit was a colossal mistake. Russian interference with the Brexit campaign seems all the more likely and who could possibly deny that separating the UK from the EU is not in the interests of Putin if he aspires to take bigger and bigger bites out of Europe?

Countries go to war when they are convinced they can win. If Russia and or China acquire a significant weapons advantage that Europe is not prepared for then negotiation will not be an option because you can only negotiate from a position of strength.

This morning's news:

Ukraine Russia war: US warns Avdiivka could fall
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-68313306