A Previous 6th June

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The Best Laid Plans ...

As I said a couple of weeks ago I intended to return to blogging but on a reduced scale. Since then my friend who was waiting for an appointment with the breast clinic has had her operation and the surgeon was unable to give her good news.  The next part of the 'process' is 5-day radiotherapy for several weeks and because her family live many miles away, another close friend of hers and myself have offered to help her husband with the hospital attendances which vary from an hour and a half to four hours so far.

Two days before her operation she became a grandmother for the first time and she has been unable to see her beautiful new grandson because she is too ill at present. Every day she sees him on Skype though - another blessing for the internet.

Now to the point of this post. I was furious to hear on the news last night that senior MPs have been pressing David Cameron to hold another vote on invention into Syria if definitive evidence merges linking the Assad regime to the chemical weapons attack.

Sir Malcolm Rifkind led the calls for options to be kept open and of course Paddy Ashdown was close behind.  Last week he stated, in his rounds of the media studios, that : "I've never felt so depressed or ashamed".  I'm sure many of us can remember at least one occasion when he ought to have felt worse.

The PR from the US has been abysmal with Kerry insisting the US has evidence that sarin was used in the attack. Obviously the US has little regard for UN inspectors as he stated his evidence comes from other sources.  Haven't we been down this road before not so long ago?

Critics insist that David Cameron's position is on a shoogly peg but, if he sticks to his promise of respecting last Thursday's vote, then he should be commended rather than pilloried.

The crucial question is: Was it Assad or the 'rebel' forces who used the sarin? That will be more or less impossible to answer and with so many factions - each with their own motive - is it right that we go to war again?  I think not. The consequences would be disastrous for the UK.

It's so easy to make the case on moral grounds but far more difficult to find an intervention that will make things better rather than worse.

The best development, at this point, would be for the Russians to reduce support for Assad and join the effort to find a way to begin to reduce the violence. A diplomatic, political solution is the way forward towards peace.

Let's not forget Vince Cable's department has been found to have permitted companies to sell chemicals, capable of being used to produce nerve gas, to Syria. The government has yet to produce details of any sale.

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For Once I Support The MoD

Try as I may I can't download a BBC video and then embed it here so please view  it here.

It never ceases to amaze me how hypocritical politicians are and what short-term memories they seem to possess.

I'm aware the MoD is a monstrous government department - the building itself and the anonymity of the endless corridors conveys inefficiency somehow - but how do politicians expect accurate levels of spending on military equipment over the next decade when officials have little or no idea of what war will be our leaders' next choice?

The cost of the Afghanistan war had reached £17.4 billion six months ago and that sum excludes military salaries. Our exit strategy has yet to be finalised because Pakistani leaders can't decide if or when they will open their borders to allow our troops a way out. One thing is certain, the military will have to leave a great amount of equipment behind, the cost of which will run into another few £billions.

Then there is the £70m we will be contributing a year to help pay for the Afghan National Security Forces plus an aid programme in excess of £70m a year for Afghanistan, according to the Prime Minister.

Surely Margaret Hodge is aware, after her party send our troops to war in Iraq, that the only figures the MoD can project for equipment are those plucked out of thin air?

Of course it will be much easier to give accurate forecasts for salaries and that figure should be reducing year on year as they continue to sack personnel.  This country will suffer for this short-termism because the proposal to rebuild our military by using TA members is backfiring.  But that's another story.

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World Battleground

The image is the beginning of a short video which I am unable to embed here, but fthink it's a superb animation. It can be viewed here on Youtube.

It shows all the important battles that took place over the last ten centuries.  The size of the explosions and labels are proportional to the number of casualties.

The data comes from the Wikipedia article List of Battles.Most of the activity seems to happen in Europe because it was the English Wikipedia which was used. The producer intends to solve this bias in a future release by merging Wikipedias in different languages.

Wars are gory.  There is no glory associated with them.

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Our Next War?

It shouldn't come as a surprise that the British military are preparing for potential military action against Iran.

Only a year ago The Truthseeker had an interesting article which is so ridiculous it could be true. However, Libya interrupted the plans, although our presence there was officially halted this week.

"Where next?" thought Obama and phoned his lapdog Cameron. "Next is Iran and I want to bring the schedule forward.  Must keep the momentum of war going or the people will begin to notice the money we waste on such foolish adventures."

"Right behind you," said Cameron.

According to the Guardian, the US may want to take action before next November's US election.  Obama can't afford to lose because of unjustified US military intervention in other countries and he knows Americans will think a military operation now is purely political because Tehran's nuclear enrichment programme has been public knowledge for some years now. According to 'sources' there is 'new' intelligence which has declared Tehran is moving some new, more efficient centrifuges into the heavily fortified military base dug beneath a mountain at the city of Qom.

A British source:

"Beyond [12 months], we couldn't be sure our missiles could reach them," the source said. "So the window is closing, and the UK needs to do some sensible forward planning. The US could do this on their own but they won't. So we need to anticipate being asked to contribute. We had thought this would wait until after the US election next year, but now we are not so sure. President Obama has a big decision to make in the coming months because he won't want to do anything just before an election."

Yes, I have little doubt our warmongering leaders will take us to war with Iran -  and soon.

 source

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The Spoils of War

Yesterday Welcome to My World wrote a post on a subject which should give us all some concern - the Strategic Defence Review.

John is obviously a paid up member of the Times pay wall, but he was good enough to quote part of the article:

"Britain gave a direct promise to the United States that it would keep its nuclear deterrent and maintain special forces after the Pentagon expressed alarm at the scale of the spending cuts. Liam Fox, the Defence Secretary, made the pledges in Washington after talks with his US counterpart, Robert Gates." 

If that's not worrying enough there is more:

"Dr Fox promised that Britain would retain the ability to mount medium-scale operations overseas, but not, in the future, those at the level of the Afghanistan mission, in which 10,000 British Service personnel are involved. He envisaged that the review would provide manpower for any future operation involving about 6,000 troops in a campaign sustained for a reasonable length of time."

There can't be any question about our military bosses now surely.  Our bosses are those in the United States and, as many of us have suspected, it's been that way for some time.  Fox realises he cannot break the apron strings so has decided to reduce the contribution.  His comment shows where expenditure will be saved - manpower. The continuing existence of Trident would appear to be assured.

This week the four leaders of Scotland's main political parties did their best to show unity when they displayed a joint document sent to the MoD in connection with the building of the aircraft carriers on the Clyde. In part I understand the reason for the protest - breaking contracts isn't 'British' and halting this shipbuilding contract would cause serious problems for the Scottish economy. Our shipbuilding industry doesn't seem able to win large international contracts anymore and is now dependent upon defence contracts but are we wise to be relying upon war to provide us with so much employment?  Where are the job creators of yesteryear?

This week I was talking to a now-retired engineer who sold his business (which had no connection to military procurements) recently for a tidy sum.  He was of a firm opinion that he would never consider starting a business today. "Far too much interference from government.  Bureaucracy has completely run out of control. The firms who do make money are those connected with military contracts because the remit changes regularly and they can charge whatever they like for each change.  Small businesses are ignored these days since our politicians decided the UK would be a service and financial centre." (I've paraphrased).

Perhaps these comments do answer part of the reason Scotland no longer has a sound manufacturing base but another is surely our education system.  Young people can no longer study engineering or craft skills in any depth at school.  Our comprehensive education system leaves no room for the training of our future craftsmen and women and they are relegated to waiting in the wings until they can leave school and find a college or university which will provide them with the skills they want - that is if they can find one since so many excellent technical colleges were closed.

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A Better Job Than a War Artist?

I suspect someone will have noticed the error in today's Times by now. It does conjure up a slightly less gruelling job than that of war artist though, doesn't it?

From Times Online

April 20, 2010

Wart artist's drawings judged too horrific for public finally bear witness

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