The Sunday Rumble: 23.12.18

I may have to give up blogging:   Nah!  Not really, so don't get your hopes up, but it is dispiriting for me to read people like Julie Burchill in the Telegraph who with apparently effortless ease says everything I want to say about the rotten BBC in superb prose summed up in this deadly stab to their decaying, corporate heart: "Oh, to have Orwell alive and back working at a BBC that appears to have taken 1984 as a How to Doublespeak manual!"  Honestly, I'd give my right arm to dream up a line like that!  Oh well, bit like my acting, I suppose, it shows the difference between the 'ams' and the 'pros'.

 

Alas, Paddy's pants are down for the last time!   My foreign readers will be perplexed by that intro line so I will explain.  I refer to the late 'Paddy' Ashdown who was, amongst many other things, the leader of the LibDem party and who, following a short illness, died unexpectedly yesterday at the relatively early age of 77.  During his distinguished career he had an extra-marital affair with a lady and the dandruff-ridden oiks of 'Fleet Street' instantly labelled him as 'Paddy Pantsdown'!  In his youth, he served in the Marine Commandos, or the 'Rock Apes' as we Paras always called them.  I never agreed with much of his politics but, in the general scheme of things, he was a good and honourable servant to the British state and I salute his memory.

 

An opinionated blogger can't make his mind up:   Er, that's me, in case you're wondering - waddya mean ya noo already!  Like everyone else in the world I am not at all sure what Donald Trump is up to but he seems to be determined to pull in American power from around the globe.  This raises the great question first posed by those two supreme historians, Sellar and Yeatman, who in their masterpiece, 1066 and All That, asked is this "a Good Thing or a Bad Thing"?  Certainly, post WWII history indicates that unleashing American power round the world has, shall we say, mixed results - for all concerned.  On the other hand, not having any American power anywhere might produce the nastiest of strategic conditions - a vacuum!  Answers on a post card please!

 

Sorry, Shakespeare - again!   I am in a schizophrenic rage/ecstasy on the subject of 'our Will'.  Last week I was spitting nails at the news that some total twat had produced a *version* of Richard II which lasted an hour and a half!  Unbelievably, one of Britain's greatest actors, Simon Russel Beale, had agreed to play the lead!  Apparently, the ruthlessly hacked text was delivered at ultra high speed - so good luck with that one, you muppets who actually bought tickets!  But then, this afternoon, by accident, I found a 1996 film version of Twelfth Night on my 'telly'.  I had never heard of it but it contained the very best of British acting talent.  The filming was superb and the acting impeccable.  Who the hell directed this masterpiece, I wondered?  Then I saw the credits and, of course, the name came up - Trevor Nunn!  He is, according to Wiki, 'a very naughty boy' when it comes to marriage but he is a genius at directing Shakespeare.  I have forgotten how many of his productions I have seen over the years and wished I had 1% of his talent and understanding.  This quotation from him says it all:

“Shakespeare has more wisdom and insight about our lives, about how to live and how not to live, how to forgive and how to understand our fellow creatures, than any religious tract. One hundred times more than the Bible. I’m sorry to say that. But over and over again in the plays there is an understanding of the human condition that doesn’t exist in religious books.”

 

More on the Trump, er, strategy:   As I indicated above, a mere ex-Corporal like me is hardly qualified to comment on strategy but I suspect that Mr. Victor Davis Hanson might be.  He writes at the National Review:

[On] matters of entering or leaving the Middle East, U.S. strategists in the cases of Syria, Libya, Afghanistan, and Iraq must develop a more coherent rationale to justify long-term occupations — to convince Americans that these increasingly numerous and optional interventions (whether six months or 18 years) enhance U.S. strategic advantages, and in cost/benefit analyses are worth the human and material costs of maintaining them. So far, we rarely receive any real information on what the actual ends are, and whether the means to obtain them are sufficient or justifiable, at a time of $21 trillion in national debt and a seeming absence of gratitude from those we seek to help.

 

No more rumbles 

 

 

Comments

[backofanenvelope]

I just feel we need to remind ourselves of our history:

Less than 100 days to Brexit.

Bill of Rights, 1689.

And I do declare that no foreign prince, person, prelate, state or potentate hath or ought to have any jurisdiction, power, superiority, pre-eminence or authority, ecclesiastical or spiritual, within this realm.

[Whitewall]

Orwell somehow understood the coming Superclass of ruling Elites. There are now rules and even laws to make free people say or not say things that upset these Elites and their favored groups. When Elites win an issue, why that is just Democracy you know. When Normals win, well, that is a threat to Democracy and proper order. A massive collision is coming.

[The Jannie]

"A massive collision is coming." My biggest regret is that I may peg it before getting the chance to do my bit.

[Whitewall]

VDH is on the right track. First, there is no such thing as 'winning' a war in the Middle East. Also, why bother with allied nations that have leaders who are beyond reach of their culture and heritage and insist on erasing themselves without a shot being fired?

[Bob]

What is Donald Trump up to. He'd be the last to know. Somehow, though, he and his son-in-law managed to get sentencing and incarceration reform passed that would have been done decades ago if only politicians weren't so homogeneously cowards. Pulling out of the Middle East isn't a bad idea either, though his methods might be just a tad wreckless. It's nearly possible to believe no one can do everything wrong.

You have to hand it to Americans: We're the first democracy to elect a game show host to our highest office. Now that's a bold experiment. Or maybe not:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTLk2VhfENg

[Bob]

Oops, it should be "reckless". An understandable mistake, I'm sure.

[Loz]

BOE,

"Grass eaters of the world unite, you have everything to gain including your chains" ...

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwiBuJPlhbffAhVMxIUKHa3kAU4QzPwBegQIARAC&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bloomberg.com%2Fopinion%2Farticles%2F2018-12-21%2Ftheresa-may-s-other-option-on-brexit&psig=AOvVaw1WHMB-b0eyTmUGodzm2_09&ust=1545692065326633

SoD

[Loz]

Ref Trump and the ME ...

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/21/world/middleeast/turkey-military-syria.html

Here's what ISIS and AQ should do, imho.

Immediately announce that by withdrawing from the ME and thereby fulfilling Osama bin Laden's dictum, the US is no longer a target. A unilateral cessation of hostilities with the US.

Bind like a limpet to the Kurds. Per that article the Kurds have just released 1100 ISIS prisoners and their families. The Kurds will need a crack team to fend off the Turks, and they know it.

The US can pump some Javelins in there knowing they won't be used against US troops because (a) they're not there anymore, and (b) the cessation of hostilities.

Israel and Saudi can step up to the plate and maybe give the Kurds / ISIS combo some regional air cover.

Ding, ding round two in Syria. This time the US is merely holding their coats while they knock six bells out of each other.

"Bait and bleed", anyone?

SoD