The Wit and Wisdom of General Sir Richard Dannatt
Evidently, after listening to the BBC Radio 4 "Any Question" there is some confusion / ignorance about what the leader of the UK military forces said to the Daily Mail...which they described / reported as follows ... "Sir Richard warned that the consequences will be felt at home, where failure to support Christian values is allowing a predatory Islamist vision to take hold."
"When I see the Islamist threat in this country I hope it doesn’t make undue progress because there is a moral and spiritual vacuum in this country."
"Our society has always been embedded in Christian values; once you have pulled the anchor up there is a danger that our society moves with the prevailing wind."
"There is an element of the moral compass spinning. I think it is up to society to realise that is the situation we are in." (Vide Tony Blair after 9/11 and his kalaedoscope being shaken.. Sedgefield)
"We can’t wish the Islamist challenge to our society away and I believe that the army both in Iraq and Afghanistan and probably wherever we go next, is fighting the foreign dimension of the challenge to our accepted way of life."
"We need to face up to the Islamist threat, to those who act in the name of Islam and in a perverted way try to impose Islam by force on societies that do not wish it."
"It is said that we live in a post Christian society. I think that is a great shame. The broader Judaic-Christian tradition has underpinned British society. It underpins the British army."
General Dannatt says he has "more optimism" that "we can get it right in Afghanistan."
How on Earth do we end up with a military leader who can (with an apparently straight face), say this sort of nonsense and a Prime Minister who says there is not a "cigarette paper" between them ? Then compare this Messianic zeal with the shambles of military procurement, preparedness, logistics in the field, inadequate planning and ill concealed ill discipline, where "force protection" long overtook rigorous military endeavour in support of clear, determined and agreed objectives.
Pic (C) Big Pictures of the New Messiah in his Ruritanian new suit of Clothes.
3 comments:
Read the comments bellow the article, the vast majority of Brits commenting seem to have very kind words and full support for the General.
I did read the comments .. you will appreciate that readers were pointed to your blog in the interests of providing a platform for the (what J K Galbraith called) the conventional wisdom.
Regrettably we are in Iraq / Afghanistan and embroiled diplomatically with Iran / DPRK. Our leaders political / military got us here but there were others who argued against - read the following two pieces published prior to the illegal invasion which are 100% correct in prophesying the result.
You might admit it's not a bad track record.
www.counterpunch.org/teague02262003.html
canadianspectator.ca/articles/beekeepers.html
This vainglorious general states the bleeding obvious and is considered to be the new Clausewitz. His creepy Christian past is really rather spooky... but he has climbed to the top of the greasy pole (possibly because the saner Bluntschli's ** have bailed out along with the highly trained helicopter pilots - I mean why fly Chinooks for £35K a year with the afghan hordes raining fire on you, era when you can earn £100K flying to/from oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico ?) and is now in charge of the dysfunctional forces who have the wrongkit, even more wrong kit on order and no clear objectives about what they are doing and a slavish obedience to the neo-con right wing Christian / Zionist caucus.
Of course there are people in GB, and no doubt elsewhere, who agree with Dannatt - that is the tragedy.
** Bluntschli (The Chocolate Cream soldier) is a character in G.B. Shaws "Arms and the Man", a cybic who keeps food in his bullet pouch rather than bullets.
Good heavens! He sounds like Pope Ratzinger! Like, hello, what are we secularists...Bin Laden's vanguard?
It seems to be that before 1980 or thereabouts, one seldom heard "Judeo-Christian"...it was just "Christian".
I once had the occasion to meet some senior Defense/Military people in the US. The group was mostly Southern, entirely white, and wore their Christian faith on their shirtsleeves...as if it were some kind of mystic priesthood.
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