"“We have lent a huge amount of money to the U.S. Of course we are concerned about the safety of our assets. To be honest, I am definitely a little worried.” "


Chinese premier Wen Jiabao 12th March 2009


""We have a financial system that is run by private shareholders, managed by private institutions, and we'd like to do our best to preserve that system."


Timothy Geithner US Secretary of the Treasury, previously President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.1/3/2009

Friday, January 16, 2009

Military Intelligence ? - 30 years too late

Sir,

Recent speeches made by the Prime Minister, Foreign Secretary and the previous Defence Secretary, and the letter from Douglas Hurd, Malcolm Rifkind, David Owen and George Robertson in The Times on June 30, 2008, have placed the issue of a world free of nuclear weapons firmly on the public agenda. But it is difficult to see how the United Kingdom can exert any leadership and influence on this issue if we insist on a costly successor to Trident that would not only preserve our own nuclear-power status well into the second half of this century but might actively encourage others to believe that nuclear weapons were still, somehow, vital to the secure defence of self-respecting nations.

This is a fallacy which can best be illustrated by analysis of the British so-called independent deterrent. This force cannot be seen as independent of the United States in any meaningful sense. It relies on the United States for the provision and regular servicing of the D5 missiles. While this country has, in theory, freedom of action over giving the order to fire, it is unthinkable that, because of the catastrophic consequences for guilty and innocent alike, these weapons would ever be launched, or seriously threatened, without the backing and support of the United States.

Should this country ever become subject to some sort of nuclear blackmail — from a terrorist group for example — it must be asked in what way, and against whom, our nuclear weapons could be used, or even threatened, to deter or punish. Nuclear weapons have shown themselves to be completely useless as a deterrent to the threats and scale of violence we currently, or are likely to, face — particularly international terrorism; and the more you analyse them the more unusable they appear.

The much cited “seat at the top table” no longer has the resonance it once did. Political clout derives much more from economic strength. Even major-player status in the international military scene is more likely to find expression through effective, strategically mobile conventional forces, capable of taking out pinpoint targets, than through the possession of unusable nuclear weapons. Our independent deterrent has become virtually irrelevant except in the context of domestic politics. Rather than perpetuating Trident, the case is much stronger for funding our Armed Forces with what they need to meet the commitments actually laid upon them. In the present economic climate it may well prove impossible to afford both.

Field Marshal Lord Bramall

General Lord Ramsbotham

General Sir Hugh Beach

House of Lords, London SW1

Now let's get rid of those damn aircraft carriers.

4 comments:

Stef said...

U Sank My Carrier!

ziz said...

Let us not forget with the most recent announcement from UK Army deaths in Afghanistan there are 5 Marines killed on patrol who have died as the result of "explosions".

Noe further explanation has been made available. Yet.

Regular readers will know how the open air "Jackal" (circa £600K a pop ) has been the focus of much attention for it's inadeqate protection, especially for the men sitting over the front axle.

We with with interest to learn of the nature of those "explosions".

Lord Patel has a great nephew serving in the Marines so follows this with a deep personal interest.

sam said...

You want to know who has remarkable military intelligence? Israel.

Latest Mark Regev interview by Paxman about the UN building "incident" is quite interesting to watch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wv0giW1elo

So we learn that troops were caught in the "fog of war" and couldn't help but fire back at the UN building but nonetheless Israeli intelligence quite amazingly knows exactly the names of two of the (usually masks wearing) Hamas shooters who were killed in the fire and vanished in the operation.

Man are they good or what? what
http://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/7q82h/

Or Regev has been briefed on the concept of "fog of war" but he is not yet comfortable with the idea behind a "false flag" operation.

Anonymous said...

"Secret society defies royal aides to set up masonic lodge inside Buckingham Palace"...

http://tinyurl.com/6t5zvf

(C) Very Seriously Disorganised Criminals 2002/3/4/5/6/7/8/9 - copy anything you wish