This is the Friends of History Debating Society. I am Gaius, John Bachelor. By the Thames, there's turmoil in the water, there's turmoil in the empire.

My companion, Germanicus joins me. We have our cup of wine. It's springtime. The last day of March, Mars

is month. War in Eurasia. in Ukraine, in Gaza, the threatened war in the East Asia.

All of this leads us to contemplate in particular the challenge to peace in Europe right now.

We're going to start with Europe.

Germanicus has been these last weeks developing an understanding of the Russian ambition

comes springtime.

It's here.

The fields are less muddy than they were a week ago.

And the news from Moscow is a call-up.

They've not only changed the vocabulary from special military operation to war.

They've announced they're going to call up tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of

thousands of troops for a spring offensive. Right now the barrage is underway against the utilities of Ukraine, what's left. Large power plants are being attacked by

Russian missiles. At the same time there is no rescue in sight, there's no U.S. cavalry riding over the horizon the

weapons package that the Biden administration has for remains stuck in

Congress and there are doubts, grave doubts whether the Ukrainian

frontline can hold. It's repeated all the time in the London press so much

so that the London media is now bragging about how with a few drainage

pipes Ukraine has constructed false artillery, much the same way that the British and Americans constructed a false invasion army in

1944 to fool the Germans into thinking well maybe they'll attack Norway, maybe they'll

attack Padekaleale. So we have the same presentation of a fake

army to fool the Russians who are very unlikely to be fooled by drainage pipes, but they're waiting on the call-up or the draft,

...