War Just Ain't What It Used To Be
Since Britain has no empire and our borders are wide open to unlimited foreign gatecrashers, what exactly are the armed forces fighting for these days? We have minesweeping boats, aircraft-carriers, destroyers, nuclear submarines, ferocious fighter planes and SAS platoons swirling all over the globe. But why?
As you read these words Royal Navy vessels are tackling pirate ships around the Straits of Hormuz and the Suez canal, because a vast amount of tempting goods move through these strategic hotpoints. As it happens my supper last night included some delicious broccoli labelled Country of Origin: Egypt -the state which owns the Suez canal. Is quality veg truly part of the rationale behind our proxy war with Iran?
This very morning I read how Britain is waging war in Yemen. According to Defence Secretary Grant Shapps the latest UK/US military strikes "will deal another blow to their limited stockpiles and ability to threaten global trade." Hit Yemen, protect global trade, you see. In the latest raid, RAF Typhoons, US warplanes, destroyers and a submarine were deployed to attack missile launchers and storage sites. No big deal; happens every day, as far as the media are concerned. This appears to be part of the new normal -that hideous phrase popularised by fascistic lockdowns. It seems any repulsive form of state activity can be deemed ‘normal’ just because it’s new and hasn’t yet prompted a revolution. War is now just another day at the office, for the amoral keyboard warriors of Fleet Street at least.
By contrast, the excellent website Action On Armed Violence reports that since 2011 Britain’s Special Forces have been operational in at least 19 countries -namely Afghanistan, Algeria, Estonia, Iran/Oman, Iraq, Kenya, Libya, Mali, Cyprus, Nigeria, Pakistan, Phillipines, Russia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine and Yemen. [DETAILS HERE]
Special Forces is the way our government describes the secretive combat units who carry out attacks, reconnaissance, “hostage rescue” , assassinations, abductions, sabotage etc. without bothering to consult Parliament or the British public. Such operations are a convenience, so that politicians can pursue quick, violent interventions without any declaration of war. Declaring war is, after all, a tricky business, as the public have a tendency to demand some kind of explanation along the lines of why, and what’s in it for us? Questions that are not easily answered when you want, for example, to whack out a dictator you spent the last decade bribing, as was the case with Saddam Hussein and Muamar Ghadaffi.
Times change, however, and on a practical level public consultation is no longer deemed necessary. For our leaders, this was the big upside of ending conscription. If you are not intending to force young men into uniform and compel them to fight, who cares what they think? That was very much the approach taken when Tony Blair ordered UK armed forces into Iraq on America’s coat-tails, despite overwhelming opposition from the British people. The message from Downing street needed no decoding : public consent not required. That precedent has been followed for the 20 years since.
Technology plays a big part in the trend towards ignoring domestic opposition. Armed with enough state-of-the-art gear, military objectives including quite large-scale slaughter can be achieved with relatively few casualties among your own troops -excellent public relations. This is particularly the case when your enemy is saddled with much inferior equipment. Selecting such opponents is quite easy for countries like America, Russia, and France, who specialise in arms-sales and control a large chunk of the market. (Britain just does what it’s told).
But there is more to war than a head count of dead soldiers. The amount of public money vanishing into the military/industrial overdraft is obscene. As the cost of living climbs toward excruciating, taxpayers are likely to resent being bankrupted as an essential part of ‘protecting the ‘global economy’. The current regime has skewered Britain’s economy on the prongs of net zero and forever war -elite policies for which nobody has voted.
You don’t need a PHD in military strategy to know there are two basic approaches to success in conflict, be it boxing or warfare. One is an overwhelming attack that eliminates the enemy, the other is the subtler art of “taking an advantageous position”. History records the latter is almost always superior. In this context the ongoing Ukrainian fiasco is either an embarassing display of strategic incompetence or a blunder that unmasks the US/NATO alliance as tools of an uncontrollable arms industry.
The most senior military officer in the North Atlantic Treat Organisation (NATO) has said while the Ukraine war has stalled for both sides, the Russian ability to regenerate force is becoming a concern and a potential conflict between Russia and the alliance itself — rather than a proxy like Ukraine — will be “a whole of society event” the West is not yet ready for”-[SEE article HERE]
The war has “stalled” for both sides, claims this pompous armchair quarterback. The bodies of around 400,000 Ukrainian troops have “stalled” while a vast Russian army is immovably embedded in those Russian-populated territories that Zelensky could have returned to Putin without a shot being fired. A victorious Russian army, waiting to see how many more billions NATO wants to relocate from taxpayers to arms dealers, smirking as western economies vanish into a U-bend of unpayable debt. And just what kind of ‘senior military officer’ would be surprised by Russia’s ‘ability to regenerate force’? A population of over 140 million represents a near-bottomless pool of potential recruits. Maybe they don’t teach you that in NATO military classrooms.
The idea that Ukraine could ever win a war against Russia was always insane. No Ukranian regime would have even considered such lunacy until the USA bankrolled the 2014 coup that led to the installation of their puppet premier Vlodomyr Zelensky. This egomaniacal psychotic was foisted upon Ukraine with the purpose of -
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Ian Andrew-Patrick
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