Archive for the ‘Defence’ Category
Defence Review 2010
January 14th, 2010 | 
Author: 
There was an Editorial in the Independent today that whilst calling for a Defence Review ended with saying that “obviously” we should cooperate with Europe more on Defence. It amazes me that supposedly intelligent people can’t grasp basic facts and realise that they are looking down the wrong end of the ruddy telescope.
It is not just about Defence, it is about every aspect of major Government spending and Health is a good example. The Labour reforms in funding of the NHS were first trialled in Scotland, much of the additional funding ended up being spent on increased wages not improved outcomes.
Posted in Defence | 
Tags: A United Kingdom, British Interests, Political Ideas, UK Economy, Within the UK | 
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Going to War and Democracy
There was an interesting article written by a former soldier in the Independent calling on the public to have a vote on going to war or not: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/crispin-black-voters-must-decide-when-we-go-to-war-1830423.html
However it is nonsense because if Parliament is in thrall to the Executive, which given the rise of the “Career Politician” it is, we need to look at the Separation of Powers and a strengthening of the role of the MP and Parliamentary Committees as a check on the Executive and, other sanctions the electorate can directly impose on sitting MPs if they fail in their duties not, specific decisions.
Posted in Defence |
Tags: Afghanistan, Democracy, Foreign Policy, Government IT Projects, Politics |
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A Lack of Strategy or a Lack of Common-sense in Washington ?
Although not my favourite Candidate for the US Presidency, the choice of the American electorate was Barack Obama and I admire his efforts over Healthcare Reform, he is right and I am sure he will be judged so over time. I personally don’t care too much for his style because to my mind he is far too laid back and often seems somewhat disconnected and right now over Afghanistan, this is very dangerous.
The biggest single problem currently is not whether the Americans send in more troops or just how many if they do, it is President Obama’s dithering over the matter and Karl W Eikenberry, a former General and now American Ambassador to Kabul, with his leaked communication advising against further reinforcements, really doesn’t help anyone whether they are in favour of getting troops out or, of hanging on in there. The advice given to parents about not arguing in front of the kids, comes to mind, the White House seems to be in total disarray.
Posted in Defence |
Tags: Afghanistan, Anglosphere, British Interests, Foreign Policy, Pakistan, Politicians, USA |
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It Sparks a Thought…
Although I don’t always comment and likely sometimes comment too much to stuff on the web but, an article by Dominic Lawson on Afghanistan in the Independent and the reader’s comments that followed, did make me stop and think for awhile about the predicament we are in currently. /www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/dominic-lawson/dominic-lawson-the-only-options-are-to-double-up-in-afghanistan-or-leave-1817739.html
Combined with Remembrance Sunday, the nasty little Sun inspired row on Brown’s handwriting and 6 British Soldiers bodies being repatriated today, the concentration of most people is on the “particular and specific” which is understandable. However and without wishing to be an “Armchair General”, we must also have an awareness of the broader picture too in deciding policy and as citizens, supporting that policy.
Posted in Defence |
Tags: Afghanistan, British Interests, EU, Foreign Policy, Gordon Brown, Politics, USA |
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Afghanistan, In or Out ?
Today being Remembrance Sunday and the sad news that we have suffered the 200th casualty since operations started in 2001 with the fall of the Taliban. Although British casualties were light up until 2006 when the then Defence Secretary John Reid announced a significant troop deployment to Helmand Province, they have accelerated since and will no doubt continue to do so.
Should we, will we leave Afghanistan ? The answer of course is Yes but not in the immediate future and certainly not within the year. President Obama is obviously struggling with this one on many levels and frankly the withdrawal plan will be initiated by the US not so much because of military but rather with “political and prestige” reasons uppermost, these are not trivial considerations.
EU Forces in Afghanistan
On the Indy comments section, one chap wrote in that because we are in recession and the EU are our “principle trading partners” plus we need additional EU “combat troops” to win in Afghanistan, that we should be nice to the EU which is a totally silly concept but he did end with a good quote: Voltaire on his death bed who said when asked to denounce the works of the devil ” This is no time to make enemies”.
The problem of course is that this is a NATO Operation and the support from France, Germany and many other EU countries, has been pretty poor, to say the least.
Posted in Defence |
Tags: Afghanistan, Foreign Policy, Politicians, The European Union |
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Ending NATO
The Independent has a soft headed journalist called Mary Dejevsky who seems to specialise in writing ill thought out rubbish. It is odd, even the Daily Telegraph has one just like her called Mary Riddell who does the same. One of the funniest comments I ever saw on the DT was when Riddell was away on holiday and someone else wrote her column a reader wrote in commenting on the article and its footnote; “The best thing about this article was the footnote, Mary Riddell is away.”
Yesterday Dejevsky decided to write about breaking up NATO and this is a good example of soft thinking: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/mary-dejevsky/mary-dejevsky-natos-dissolution-is-long-overdue-1782938.html
Gordon Brown in Afghanistan
A journalist in today’s Times wrote an article saying just how unpopular Gordon Brown is with the troops in Afghanistan: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article6815545.ece
Gordon Brown deserves to be despised by the Military, he is a poor Prime Minister but more importantly as Chancellor, he refused to fund our Armed Forces properly preferring to spend money on his “pet projects”. He only took an interest in building Aircraft Carriers because it would mean jobs in Scotland which might support the Labour vote there, he has no appreciation of whether they should be built from a Military perspective.
The Objective of Defence
The objective of Defence is defence of the Realm which basically means our physical borders in the UK and their integrity whether from foreign enemy, smugglers or illegal immigrants and on that, I am sure most would agree.
The next question concerns “projections” from that basic position, what should the UK “posture” be ? And in answering this question, my personal suggestion would be to ignore Russia and the countries of the EU because both are rather yesterday’s news in all honesty. The geographic and geopolitical centres have moved substantially, albeit on a temporary basis, the future is always difficult to predict.
Morality and Weapons
In recent times I have noticed that people have been writing and speaking of UAVs – Unmanned Ariel Vehicles in US Military Speak, “Drones” to others, in terms of morality concerning their use which is an extraordinary dumb approach to any weapons system.
The “why” this has come about is fairly obvious because for some time the CIA and US Military have used them to “assassinate” Taliban Commanders in the mountainous regions of Pakistan’s Tribal Region that borders Afghanistan. However to talk in terms of morality is little short of bizarre in that a dumb iron bomb dropped on a house from a plane is no more nor less moral than a missile fired from a UAV.