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WAR OF IDEAS
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Remembering Michael Hastings
Posted By David Kenner
Thursday, August 12, 2010 - 12:56 PM
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You know, there once was a time in the not too distant past when the British military defended civilization against a genocidal German regime that appeared intent on rampaging across much of the planet. Now, it looks as if it will be reduced to a shadow of its former self: Proposed cuts would slice the Royal Air Force to levels not seen since World War I, while the Army could see reductions of as much as 40 percent of its forces.
Some observers suggest that these selectively-leaked numbers are merely posturing -- the military is airing a doomsday scenario in order to rally support for scaling back the cuts. That may be true, but the reality of serious reductions to the Britain's armed forces is here to stay. The government's budget, weakened further by a persistent economic crisis, simply can't support the present size of the British military.
Critics of the size of the U.S. defense budget will no doubt look to Britain for tips regarding how they can reverse the growth in military spending. I'm not sure, however, that they are going to find anything useful. If we take Britain as a model, the keys to reversing defense spending appear to be, in order of importance: Have an unsustainable budget deficit that cannot be managed any other way, find another global superpower to police the world for you, and transform the region of the world where your interests lie into one of peace and stability. The United States doesn't look likely to fulfill any of those requirements in the short-term -- though, with the capabilities of one of its most important allies looking to be slashed, its job is only about to get tougher.
To quote a writer from the Kings of War blog, part of the U.K's problem is that it has tried to be so many different things that cost a lot. It wants a first class navy, a strong army, a modern air force, good transatlantic ties, good European ties and nuclear weapons whose have gone nearly unquestioned by all major political parties save the Liberal Democrats (though that may be changing). You can't expect a nation without a huge economy to be able to support all of those trends.
Today’s British armed forces, particularly its fighting elements are second to none in quality and probably better than most in training and morale. Its unique regimental structure a handicap during the great wars of the twentieth century is probably a force multiplier in our era’s smaller conflicts. The British possess a deep and colorful military history/culture that goes back centuries and under pins morale. Such a culture is very rare thing in this technological world of ours particularly in the vast Wal-Mart like U. S. military and seemingly only exists in elite formations like the USMC with a strong historical tradition.
Hopefully, the Brit’s can carefully trim their forces and balance them with their economic capabilities. One way to help in doing that is to NOT allow the Americans to suck them into anymore monstrously stupid wars. Generally, the Americans don’t value anyone’s efforts but their won. So if the Brit's think they are earning brownie points from a grateful America they had better disabuse them of that naive notion. In Vietnam they were sensible enough to remain aloof from that fiasco, too bad they forgot the lesson.
British Armed forces are pathetic and have a long history of engaging in genocide and ethnic cleansing, while training and protecting Arab states.
In Kenya the British armed killed hundreds of thousands of natives protecting their little settler colonies. In Afghanistan the British army killed 7,000 between 2004-2005 (according to the military). Britain has killed many more in Palestine, Iraq, Egypt, and India.
"colorful military history" yeah I love it LOL.
So are you defending the Arab states that commit their own atrocities? Perhaps Israel with its checkered past. No, wait I've got it. You're defending France with its past!
Without ethnic cleansing America and Israel wouldn't exist.
Who cared the Arab states? Oh yeah, Britain. Who bankrolled the Arab states? Oh yeah, Britain. Who secretly supports Arab regimes to protect themselves from terrorism - as Cameron is doing by bashing Israel, hoping to curry favor with the Islamic world and insulate himself.
After all, anyone who dares criticize the Arab world is hit with death threats and accusations of Islamophobia.
Even the United Nations has tried passing laws that make criticism of Islam a crime.
Britain has never been subject to UN resolutions, international boycotts. The media does not conspire with al-qaeda and the taliban "anonymous" sources, or paint British soldiers as inspired by racism, though compared to the IDF they are Nazis.
The Role of the British Military
Yes, the British military has committed deeds that we can all condemn. However, just pointing out its sins, or the sins of any other, or indeed, the sins of all the military establishments throughout history is simply playing the blame game without making any real point except that in an ideal world we would all be pacifists. This, however, is not an ideal world. Any military establishment (and I would include here the Taliban, al-Qaeda, and all similar groups) is about the use of force. Whenever force is used, bad things happen.
In the modern West, however, soldiers do not make policy. Politicians make policy and then tell soldiers to get on with enforcing it, while they try to maintain their "deniability." We cannot, therefore, absolve politicians from their share of the blame for any atrocities. They sit in their cushy offices while others do their dirty work for them.
That having been said, the British Army is one of the most professional and well-respected military institutions of the modern world. Whoever in this forum who compared the US Marines to it, paid the Marines a huge compliment. My son is a Marine, and I know they claim descent from that other great British institution, the Royal Marines. They're proud of it, too. This is one American who is very glad that the Brits have always had our backs. You see, the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812 are ancient history.
It never astonishes me how quickly the hawks drop one on a comment page, anyway.
All countries have a blemished history if you take the US and Vietnam massacres, Israel and Lebanon massacres, Germany and the Holocaust and so on and so forth. Any nation that classes itself as civilised now has learnt from the mistakes of their forebearers. Enlightenment is King and has shown that wars in anything but true defence are folly.
Are you actually comparing Israel's performance in Lebanon to Britain's war crimes in Kenya, and America's ruthless carpet bombing of Vietnam, Korea, Afghanistan, and Iraq?
The Israel-Arab conflict has killed, at most, 90,000 people. The Zionists have killed, at most, 40,000 people between the Lebanon Civil War, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and Israeli-Arab conflict - in the last 100 years.
British military history:
Revolts in Iraq 1920s: 10,000 kurds gassed
Revolts in Palestine: 10,000 Arabs killed by the British Army
Bengal Famine in India due to British occupation: 3,000,000 starved
Blockade of Palestine after White Papers: Thousands of Jewish refugees perish at sea - SS Struma for example
Coup in Iran: 1,000 killed
Iraqi July 14th revolution: 9,000 killed
Malayan Emergency: 7,000 killed
Mau Mau uprising: At least 50,000 civilians killed while protecting settler colonies. Thousands of square-kilometers land confiscated, never returned, millions expelled and displaced.
Falkland: 500 killed
War in Afghanistan: At least 4,000 civilians as part of NATO operations
This is just a brief history.
Britain's status as a super-power is partially based on the millions of people who died and suffered at the hands of the British Empire.
Israel is too victim to British imperialism, to this very day.
So when I see British sockpuppets try to compare Israel to Britain, I laugh. You should learn your own history.
Cheerio!
I can't help but respond, you have merely reinforced the point I made. War is hell, all educated people should be opposed to it in all but the most dire circumstances.
If we are talking about Israel is the West Bank not a colony now? Does Gaza not resemble a concentration camp? How many people die each day in Gaza due to lack of proper services?
Gain the history of a nation of more than 60 years and you'll have a rap sheet as long as any old persistant empire. Also your list is flawed, you mix rebelion with defence in wars of aggression and famine caused by grain merchants. Comparisons between Intifadas and insurgences fought by British forces (Malayan Emergencies for example) can clearly be drawn - would Israel not have fought in that situation? They did.
The list I used was a general comparison of multiple nations, clearly you were riled by a single entry. I could have mentioned Italians, French, Japanese and more.
Gaza lightening rod, British criminals
"I can't help but respond, you have merely reinforced the point I made. War is hell, all educated people should be opposed to it in all but the most dire circumstances."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
War is hell, but unnecessary war is wrong. Britain has killed MILLIONS OF PEOPLE, PERIOD. You drew parallels to Israel's military history (funny, Israeli airforce fought British RAF planes during the 48 war) and Britain's...dubiously.
"I can't help but respond, you have merely reinforced the point I made. War is hell, all educated people should be opposed to it in all but the most dire circumstances."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Did Israel kill 100,000+ people to protect their settler colonies in the West Bank? Did Israel confiscated 3 million square-kilometers of land?
No. The "settlements" sit on less than 4% of the West Bank and provide Palestinians with 40,000 high-paying jobs. And Jewish residents/Arab residents of the WB do about 500 million a year in annual trade. Most of the settlements sit on land bought from Palestinian residents, the Palestinian leaders had to pass laws making the sale of land to Jews a capital offense, LOL!
And anyways, it really isn't comparable. Kenya, Austraila, New Zealand - all british apartheid exports, involved the genocide and extermination of an into race of people. Most of the "settlement" blocs sit on cities destroyed during the british occupation, Gush Etzion and Artuf for example.
It's not comparable, not at all - though not surprising considering the way British media portrays Israel.
"If we are talking about Israel is the West Bank not a colony now? Does Gaza not resemble a concentration camp? How many people die each day in Gaza due to lack of proper services?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Evil. Concentration camp?
http://www.palestineremembered.com/GeoPoints/Gaza_526/Gaza-11190.jpg
http://paltimes.net/arabic/photos.php?album=501
Some concentration camp...
http://www.paltoday.ps/arabic/News-80593.html
http://paltoday.ps/arabic/News-64161.html
God I wish the IDF would please come and occupy my home. This occupation looks very appetizing - free food from the UN, swimming pools, life expectancy 73 and lower infant mortality rate than Turkey, Egypt, and Jordan...
You want concentration camp British fanboy? Go to Iraq and Afghanistan, the millions of REAL refugees living in concentration camps after the British bulldozed their villages and converted them into military bases. I don't see Britain delivering billions of pounds of humanitarian aid to civilians that live under the Taliban, or providing electricity to the Taliban for free.
Please recuse false analogies to the holocaust, that is antisemitic and disgusting. No wonder Britain is a joke.
CHUNKYNUT, your arguing with a bigot and not a very smart one at that in the form of AVNER STEIN. Consequently your words are falling on barren ground.
War is not a picnic and things do go wrong.
War is a part of Life and Peace. You can’t have peace if the fear of war is not real. Now I don’t think there are any countries in this world that can claim they have never had any human rights violations in time of war. . China, Russia, France, Germany, Israel, Venezuela, Colombia, France, England, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Jordan, Syria, and yes Sadly the United States.
If you review your history there are some quotes that we could all remember:
• “Laws are silent in times of war.”
• “A bad peace is even worse then war.”
War causes bad things to happen to good people and that is life.
America can ill afford to be the world's policeman
See:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-11/u-s-is-bankrupt-and-we-don-t-even-know-commentary-by-laurence-kotlikoff.html
U.S. Is Bankrupt and We Don't Even Know: Laurence Kotlikoff
Plus, the new lost generation:
http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2010/08/non-financial-cost-of-stagnation-social.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+google/RzFQ+(oftwominds)
The Non-Financial Cost of Stagnation: "Social Recession" and Japan's "Lost Generations"
And then the Brown generation to follow:
http://www.nationaljournal. com/njmagazine/cs_20100724_ 3946.php
The Gray And The Brown: The Generational Mismatch
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