Do civil servants calculate the cost of looking after veterans when they give their “estimates” of the costs of doing things? The official line is that British veterans are looked after by the NHS. Right – so the NHS should develop specialist burns and multiple amputee wards all over the country, and nationwide chain of […]
The Cost of War is not paid by the Government Read More »
www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VwvUJhvUqE Colgate University begins work on the relative effectiveness of aerial drone surveillance equipment, against unskilled “terrorists” equipped only with mobile phones. Their ‘experiment’ used students who’d been given several weeks to work out how to use the technology, and “terrorist” students given no planning opportunities, who’d arrived with just their mobile phones and a commercially available
Surveillance Technology ‘versus” Terrorists Experiment Read More »
Leigh Day and Co have made a lot of money out of suing British soldiers on behalf of Iraqis. As a result, the British Army risks becoming even more risk averse; and why should it’s young officers and NCOs have to worry about being sued years afterwards for doing their duty? “Torture Report: war is
Advice to our Enemies: Shoot First, then take us to Court. Read More »
Do you remember back to when you wanted to ride a motorcycle, but your parents wouldn’t let you because they thought it was too dangerous? You watched every passing motorcycle with envy, imagining how it might be to be so free and cool. The more your parents said “No”, the more you wanted it. But
Scottish Independence is Like Riding a Motorcycle Read More »
Using military force requires considerable thought beforehand. Planning for afterwards doesn’t seem to be part of the USA’s war-fighting approach. The Americans invaded Iraq with no plan for rebuilding the country, and so created what seems to be a failed state. How long after withdrawal will it take for Afghanistan to be re-taken by the Taliban –
USA Fighting the Wrong Wars Read More »
One of many sad things about the current Gaza disaster, is how little thinking is taking place. Especially as some “liberals’ seem now to be siding with Hamas – a brutal terrorist group. Polarisation is as ever killing ordinary people. Neither side will relent. Israel isn’t going to stop settling Palestinian “territory” because that would be to
Gaza: Don’t Take Sides! – especially Liberals. Read More »
Once the suppressive force of a regime is removed, countries like Egypt, Iraq and Afghanistan have no mechanisms to stop extremists filling the vacuum. There are worse things than dictators. The CIA’s funding of ISIS as the ‘official” opposition to the Syrian regime has created one such monster. The principle of “my enemy’s enemy is
Remove Dictators to Create Monsters Read More »
TIME and other US news outlets are trying to present Russian people as believing all the various internet nonsense stories that incidents like the Malaysian Airlines tragedy invariably create. That MH17 was loaded with dead bodies in Amsterdam and the pilots parachuted out; that Putin was flying over the same area in his private plane (and
Russians are Not Fools! Read More »
The big danger with ISIS is if ordinary people take them seriously. It’s clear that the radicalisation of their followers is crude and extreme; even Osama Bin Laden urged them to temper their ruthlessness. Rightly he said this would turn the tide of ground-level Suuni support against them. The much-touted Islamist threat to Western democracies depends
ISIS Extremism is a Good Thing Read More »
TS Elliot measured his life in coffee spoons. It seems these days we express ours in terms of kittens. This use of irrelevance to give meaning to life reminds me of a woman who appeared in a BBC television survival series I co-presented called “Bare Necessities”. She used her survival instincts to make a swing for herself
The Threat of Kittens Read More »