Britain's Army Chief: Citizens Will Have to Make Sacrifices for Defence, and Politicians Will Soon Tell Them Why

"You may not have been aware, but our country is going to need your help." With this sentence General Roly Walker, Chief of the General Staff of the British Army, addressed around 700 soldiers at Catterick Garrison in North Yorkshire. The footage was captured by British Forces Broadcasting Service BFBS, and his remarks were reported by Sky News.

The message wasn't just for the soldiers. Walker announced that the UK's political leaders will "very soon" start an open conversation with the public about what is happening and where the risks lie - and will try to explain that they have to accept sacrifices so that defence and security get priority. "Then they will ask those citizens, for whom defence is probably not a priority, to take on their own share of responsibility for the defence and security of this country. That means they too will have to make certain sacrifices," the general said.

The general said more than it seems at first glance. "There was a time when our country didn't even want to think that its soldiers would have to take part in a war," he told the troops. Past tense. When the top military officer of a nuclear power talks like this in front of a camera, it's hardly improvisation. It looks more like preparing the public.

The irony is that politicians haven't been in a hurry so far. Prime Minister Andy Burnham inherited the promise of a national debate on defence from his predecessor Keir Starmer, and that promise was made more than 18 months ago. Also waiting in the drawer is a campaign meant to encourage every household to prepare better for crises, from floods and droughts to armed conflict. The plan was inherited from the previous government - and still hasn't been implemented.

The Balkans know this vocabulary. Here "sacrifices for defence" were never an abstract phrase from a speech, but something entire generations paid for at home. That's why the question is bigger than London: if a British general has to prepare citizens in advance, is Europe, which for decades lived in the belief that war was a thing of the past, even ready for that conversation?