Bob Ainsworth, the unfit Defence Secretary was spouting another lecture on the day two more British soldiers have died after they were wounded in separate explosions in Southern Afghanistan. One was from 2nd Battalion The Rifles and was killed yesterday afternoon and the other, from 2nd Royal Tank Regiment, died in hospital in the UK from wounds received on Saturday. The latest deaths bring the total to 216.
Meanwhile Bob Ainsworth took to the podium at King's College, London to deliver news on the present and future challenges facing the defence of the UK and to promote his Green Paper on Defence Strategy.
A couple of points caught my eye (the emphasis is mine):
"Failure in Afghanistan would have profound consequences for our national security. It would embolden those who preach extremist violence and increase the threat of terrorist attacks here at home. It would undermine the NATO alliance which has been the bedrock of Britain’s defence for the last 60 years. It would leave the UK and her Armed Forces with diminished support for action in the future and a tarnished reputation.
"I have made it clear to all personnel in the Ministry of Defence that success in Afghanistan is our main effort, and will remain our principal commitment for as long as it takes. Our approach at this time must be - and is - Afghanistan First."
So this week it appears our Armed Forces are in Afghanistan without any timeline for withdrawal in sight.
"If conflict is to be avoided, we will need more effective international institutions. The UK will need to remain globally influential and engaged to shape those institutions and their actions. Our defence capability will need to reflect that global role."
Ainsworth and his fellow dreamers continue to think we are major players on the world stage, convinced that if they repeat a statement often enough the public will believe it.
"It is widely held that one of the greatest long term challenges to international stability is likely to be the results of climate change. (A whiff of Al Gore rhetoric there)
Now it's climate change and he states that competition for resources may trigger or exacerbate conflict.
We could see mass migration as a result of rapid change in fragile societies. Regions which already suffer from insecurity are likely to feel the impact of climate change harder than in stable societies.
"Over the next few decades, Asia will rival the US and Europe as a centre of global economic and political power.
"It is currently predicted that by 2030 the world's four largest single economies will be the US, China, Japan and India. Some estimate that the size of China's economy could overhaul that of the United States by 2040.
"Over this period, the United States is likely to remain the only military power with the ability to support a global presence. The UK relationship with the United States, in the context of NATO and our membership of the EU, will therefore remain critical for our security."
Now the final sentence deserves some attention. Afghanistan and Iraq are all to do with the obsession the UK has with the US, nothing more, nothing less. This government is quite determined Britain becomes the 51th state.
Ainsworth tries hard to substantiate the cuts that he intends to make to the defence budget by saying there is little public appetite for higher defence spending. The Telegraph quotes a YouGov survey in June which showed that 51% of voters named defence as the first area of Government spending they would cut, more than any other department. So 49% of us didn't name the MoD in June for cuts.
'There is no intention on this Government's part of moving our position on Trident,' he said. Well there should be - such an utter waste of money but of course nothing to do with the safety of the UK - it's what the US want isn't it?
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