Apologies for the delay in getting back to you and not answering a genuine question, rather than responding to the bluster and nonsense on the thread.
Yes, I think its right to regard Russia as an enemy. Hard not to regard them as such and describing them as an adversary seems far too lenient and doesn't capture the malicious nature of their activities.
I don't however believe we're at war with them, not in the traditional sense anyway. Others obviously have different opinions on that, but personally I'm not certain that Russia's actions are currently materially worse than they were during the cold war, which obviously didn't result in full scale conflict. It did however require much higher levels of military spending and preparedness to prevent a full scale conflict from occurring, which I think is roughly where we are now.
What do you believe?
Well obviously they were both leading questions to which I would perhaps not surprisingly answer ‘yes’ x2.
Relations between nations always operate (and evolve) within a spectrum, and just because a nation is inimical, or even hostile to another it doesn’t follow they are at war; however I am struggling to see how else our current relationship with Russia could otherwise be characterised; true it isn't ‘hot’ warfare in the conventional sense, but the scale, scope, intent and nature of their conduct towards the UK over the course of the last decade or so unquestionably descends into waging war imo. We are also unquestionably heavily involved in fighting a proxy war against Russia in Ukraine; a war that is being fought against a truly disgusting regime, and for me, unquestionably represents a battle of good against evil - there is no other description that does it sufficient justice.
Against the backdrop, I feel your deployment of the word ‘absurd’ to characterise the suggestion that the US administration is not our friend and ally is a grossly inappropriate word to use, because ‘absurd’ connotes something that is not arguable, which in my view is itself absurd.
To draw a personal analogy (albeit a theoretical one) if there was someone down my local boozer who was a bit of a tit towards me or even someone I’d had a few run-ins with and I saw one of my friends having a laugh with them at the bar, it wouldn’t especially bother me; but if this same person had fucked my wife, stolen off me and actively tried to discredit me over a sustained period and the same interaction between them took place I would no longer consider that person as my friend, or ally in a personal sense.
I realise this is a gross simplification, but as a metaphor I feel it is apposite and highly illustrative.
Russia seeks to destroy us and any country that equivocates around their dealings with them cannot be considered a friend to this country.
And Trump does not equivocate. He sides with our enemy again and again - and so be is not our friend, and nor is he our ally.
For me, it really is as straightforward as that, and I certainly don’t feel that perspective could fairly or properly be described as absurd.
