Jules Crittenden links to this anniversary of the start of the Falklands war by the Argentine dictatorship. When I was in high school it was incredible to watch in slow motion as the fleet left Britain, there was no CNN, and it was probably the last major conflict that could be followed comfortably in the newspapers.
I loved this cover of Newsweek when it came out (the aircraft carrier Hermes) with the legend "The Empire Strikes Back." It can be found here.
In any event, today the Iranians have snatched 15 men on the high seas. Britain's fleet could have stopped them and did nothing. The U.N. does nothing. The E.U. does nothing. Britain has sunk so far into post-modernism and multi-culti, chomskiite self-loathing that she will likely do nothing but kow-tow to the Persians. The films of the female "sailor" in head scarf intoning an apology are humiliating. While I am not a fan of women fighting in the military, I am very much in favor of a woman running a fighting military. http://www.tfa.net/ffi02.htm
At Suez we stopped them from taking on a middle-eastern dictator. Here they appear to be doing it themselves. Absolutely appalling.
3 comments:
One reason that they do nothing is that the Royal Navy is now a shell of its former self, and continuing to dwindle year by year.
However, if the Iranians are releasing the sailors with no strings attached, then it's likely a frustration to the IRG. Anything that frustrates the Revolutionaries in Iran is likely to cheer me up.
If, however, the Brits bought off the release of the sailors, I shall be quite vexed. My likely next step would be to send another warship into the same area - only make it a real one, a Destroyer at least. Ceding de facto control of that part of the ocean to Iran is not something I'm particularly interested in.
JCC
Most of my money is on the frustration angle, although there might be something to the buyoff. The Brits could point to that as a "Hey, it's not us" defense when we blunder our way into tangling with Iran.
I had no idea the RN had shrunk so drastically. How do they protect their sea route to India? Oh, wait... In any event there doesn't seem to be a huge difference between a destroyer and the frigate that let its crew get captured. The next largest ship that is not a submarine is, well, one of their two carriers.
The most important question, of course, is whether JCC would be one-syllable vexed or two syllable vexed. One of those would mark him as a veteran of the Derbyshire Light Infantry.
Speaking of India, it is now the proud possessor of the Aircraft carrier Hermes I mentioned above (now renamed something difficult to spell and pronounce).
Post a Comment