The events of the Falklands war are now exactly equidistant between the present and the second world war. For many of you, as for me, for whom the Sun's front pages, the news of the sinking of Sheffield announced by Ian McDonald in sombre tones, the taking of Stanley, are as fresh as yesterday's breakfast, that will come as a shock. Sir Henry Leach, our Falklands First Sea Lord, actually saw active service in WWII. The current FSL, Tony Radakin, wasn't even commissioned until 1990, eight years after the Falklands.
I throw that in to demonstrate how rapidly the civilian experience of war passes; the jingoism, flag waving, anxious dedication to news output, simple emotions and sense of loss at every setback, shared grief for our inevitable losses. Somehow the 2003 Gulf war didn't count- perhaps it was too easy, or over too quickly, or had too little public support or absent innate rightness to count. So we have whole generations now on social media who not only missed the Falklands experience but who would be hard pushed to point to Iran on a map first-try. It's not much consolation that our domestic ignorance is likely a little less than the ignorance of Americans in this respect; No, that's Colombia. That's Nigeria. Whoa, now not even the right hemisphere. My generation will not only be largely able to stick a finger on the land of the crane-hangers first time but to name the seven nations it borders, or at least four of them.
Not only are we civilians as a whole less capable of expertise and of balanced judgement, more ignorant of geography and of geopolitics, but everyone now feels utterly entitled to call themselves an expert; the Tik Tok (I bet you haven't even heard of it) generation, who are also convinced the planet has caught fire and will burn up by next Thursday, have now convinced themselves that WW3 is here*, and war will destroy us all before climate change. By Wednesday, say. There is nothing that can be said to them to convince them otherwise.
Well, the proxy war between the crane-hangers and the head-choppers in which we and the US have been caught in the middle has taken a new turn; the Donald may actually now succeed in pulling US forces out of Iraq and Syria, assisted by the Iraqi parliament, allowing them to assault eachother directly. Let them get on with it. Saudi oil is less important for the US; as soon as it reaches $60bbl the US frackers come on stream.
So no great pronouncements from me today. Let's watch this one. Calmly, as we do.
*As does the Daily Express - which I always imagined anyway was written for teenagers.
10 comments:
To be rather cynical, starting a war with Iran would, most likely, actually achieve the objective of preventing them achieving a nuclear device. The first targets for Israel, I mean the West, would be the nuclear research/production bases. Second, the technology used by the USA, for the last 20 years, is SO OLD. Why not use it all up in a good cause and then they can play with the really good new cool stuff!
Sensible, measured response from Boris yesterday.
We are often urged not to make a drama out of a crisis. To not let our emotions get out of hand and make matters worse and more confused. Good advice.
Who are those interested in creating drama? The mainstream media (it sells more advertising), the radicals (it advances their non-mainstream agendas), politicians (provides a passing bandwagon for them to leap aboard) and anyone who has become habituated to continuous drama through social media. None of these people are helping... so it is refreshing to see the current Government's more measured approach. I hope it continues; feeding the media monster only makes it more hungry.
Raedwald said:
"allowing them to assault eachother directly. Let them get on with it."
We've both said if before and aye to that - again.
Many people jumped on Trump's back when the take-out was reported but people forget how Trump operates and the things he does never seem to sit right until well after the event when people then go 'ahhhh, that's what he was angling for'.
Got to admit I'm still a bit confused over his motives too but time will tell.
But the idea of bringing fracked gas back into profit seems a good guess.
..."but to name the seven nations it borders, or at least four of them."
I named all 7 but one could also count the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic (officially part of Azerbaijan but completely separate geographically)
Iranians are nice led but shits. I visited several times in the noughties, held at the airport once due to bureaucratic silliness and only once refused entry. Most of those in business, most over a certain age and all the youth would kick the Ayatollah and Guardian Council into touch in an instant if they could. I prefer the persians over the Arabs any day.
"Iranians are nice led but shits"...SHOULD READ Iranians are generally nice people but led by shits!
I reckon Trump order this just because he could. When you are as big as the US you don't need a strategy constructed like a wristwatch, a hammer will do. Because all this feeds into Donald's run up to election. He can play tough and he needs the Israel-friendlies on-side. By comparison the Iranians are a fleabite and a sideshow, albeit one that might cost lives.
So it will be interesting to see how this pans out. The Iranians might sit relatively quietly until Donald is chucked out, or if Donald looks like getting in then less incentive to be quiet. We shall see.
Attacking Iran gives the US Deep State the opportunity to create a False Flag event that can then be used as a 'legitimate excuse' to do as they please across the ME without criticism - they have form on that account.
I'm just waiting....
"Iranians are nice led but shits"...SHOULD READ Iranians are generally nice people but led by shits!"
Agreed.
Post a Comment