Feeling cheerful this Sunday morning, are you? Well, I'll soon put a stop to that! Or to be precise, Mr. Peter Hitchens, will! He has a terrific article in The Mail today in which he looks back over his political travails during the numerous general elections from the early '70s until today in which he was either a participant or just another voter. All the old names resurface, Michael Foot, Harold MacMillan, Ted Heath, Jeremy Thorpe and so on and on, ad nauseum, although, oddly, he never mentions "that woman"! It has obviously been a long and painful journey for poor Peter because he looks back on it, and into the future, with undoubted anguish. But of course, his real problem is that he is now and has been since his early teen-age years, an idealist which is why he began his political journey with the Labour party. Alas, idealists of all persuasions are doomed to disappointment because this messy world just doesn't behave like that! Even so, it is a superb and in some ways moving essay and well worth reading.
Do get a grip, Mr. President! Alas, after reading Mr. John R. Bradley's piece in this week's 'Speccie', I fear that the 'Ginger Ninjah' has adopted an odd anthem to lead his Middle East policy - "In-out, in-out, wave it all about!" A few days ago we - er, well, me, at any rate - were breathing a sigh of relief following 'The Donald's' decision to withdraw American ground troops from the Middle East. Since then, the American Generals have ordered their Military Police to give him a whacking with their 'yuuuuuuuge' truncheons and in this they have been aided and abetted by the Evangelical vote which will be crucial at the next election. Then there are the neo-cons led by the likes of Sen. Lindsey Graham whose support will be critical if this fatuous impeachment goes much further. The result is that now 'the GIs ain't goin' nowhere no how'. Please, pretty please, Mr. President do try and engage the brain before opening your mouth - and in the meantime have your twitter finger amputated!
Dammit, that Max Hastings is good! Yes, I have finally begun his book "Chastise", his history of the famous dam-busters raid in 1944. I was somewhat surprised to learn that it took place on the night of the 16th of May and the early morning of the 17th which, of course, as y'all do know, do you not?, was my 4th birthday! I am only into it in a small way but already Sir Max has dropped some 500lb bombs on that bumptious fool, Air Marshal 'Bomber' Harris, which is excellent. Even based on the opening chapters I can thoroughly recommend it.
Good News and Dribbling Idiocy: Thanks to today's Mail I learn two things. First, the police are to be given the power to arrest (so-called) gypsies if they set up their squalid camps illegally on private or public land. Second, audiences at theatres will no longer hear the phrase "Ladies and Gentlemen" which has been banned for the usual eye-ball rolling idiocy perpetrated by the 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz' pressure group. (Note: I have put all the letters into their title to ensure that I don't leave one out!
When it comes to the horror of black slavery, check out Arab-Islam! A fascinating, 'MUST READ' article at The American Thinker site in which the little known, or at least, the little mentioned, facts of Arabic slavery in Africa, which far exceeds anything we wicked, Western Whites ever did, is exposed. Nowadays, of course, much of black Africa has converted to Islam so we are unlikely to see any recriminations from there!
No more rumbles . . .
Old Hickory goes up the sharp end ...
https://www.military.com/daily-news/2019/10/31/army-national-guard-mechanized-infantry-forces-arrive-syria-protect-oil-fields.html
Godspeed.
SoD
Posted by: Loz | Sunday, 03 November 2019 at 12:27
I can't disagree with Hitchens. Something or someone big and bold enough to open the drapes and turn on the lights thereby exposing the slithering governing classes is needed. Someone to say what can't be said and do what must not be done. Someone to go directly into the belly of the beast(s) and loudly point out the "bleedin' obvious"...and name names. Enrage the right people repeatedly like the survival of the nation is at stake.
Posted by: Whitewall | Sunday, 03 November 2019 at 12:40
Speaking of enraging the right people, these "transgender" loons need a big dose of reality right upside the head:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7643251/Charity-hounds-birth-coach-post-saying-women-children.html
That will take a leader.
Posted by: Whitewall | Sunday, 03 November 2019 at 13:03
Hitchens was no admirer of Thatcher ...
https://www.military.com/daily-news/2019/10/31/army-national-guard-mechanized-infantry-forces-arrive-syria-protect-oil-fields.html
He believed in preserving the stasis of the rotten oppressive entitlement-cultured "communities" that broke Blighty 1945-1975. He whinges about everyone else who tried to manage them while bankrupting the country, and then with the age old pol's horseshit says, "If they'd only done it my way all would have been fine". And this from someone who's never done anything in his life other than hang around the periphery of politics puffing and blowing hot air.
That Woman smashed those rotten oppressive entitlement-cultured communities that had broken Blighty and restored a future for a failed state.
What a torrent of Dad's Army Country-Bumpkin crap.
SoD
Posted by: Loz | Sunday, 03 November 2019 at 13:14
SoD,
Have to acknowledge from our earlier conversation here:
https://duffandnonsense.typepad.com/duff_nonsense/2019/10/sorry-to-make-you-vomit-your-breakfast.html
As I'd put in my "advice to Senator Cotton" (which I can now acknowledge given the strategic goal of 'securing Deir ez-Zor is crucial ... and to support in force to Al Tanf in Jordan' I hadn't really put much thinking into how that might be realistically accomplished - but, nevertheless seems to have been put into place)
So I further acknowledge your suggesting armor (though your advice that 'the Israelis do it') So yes I rushed out a tactical as opposed to a strategic recommendation - so Thanks for that!
Originally I'd been figuring air assets would alone be enough but the problem I'd overlooked was that "deterrence was a necessary component" and nothing says 'in your face deterrence' like a biggish line of tanks - the problem with air assets only is, it's not readily seen by those who might wish to interfere against the goal - those "prospective interferors" after all have no air force of their own to report back to their superiors "Holy Shit no way we can get through that!"
Armor on the other hand ...
Don't know that SoD, my putting your name in for a commission will even make its way to the board though. So don't get your hopes up.
Posted by: JK | Sunday, 03 November 2019 at 18:11
What's amazing are those C-17's. Gotta admit I didn't know how they were gonna get MBT's to the zone. I didn't think they could do this with MBT's, silly me ...
https://youtu.be/-rzIfezZ6gY
And the older but still in service C-5 can carry 2x Abrams MBT's!
And apparently they don't need a runway to land, that array of wheels means a dirty old field will do ...
https://youtu.be/hJjbaofaISo
And you guys have got hundreds of 'em!
Guderian would have given his right arm for the Blitzkrieg potential of that - a whole armoured division dropped behind enemy lines at dawn and bright eyed and bushy tailed doing-the-do in the enemy's rear at midday!
I feel a wargames scenario coming on at the Farnborough Wargames Society ...
SoD
Posted by: Loz | Sunday, 03 November 2019 at 19:14
SoD I've appreciated your "takes" on stuff - generally speaking - but then there's guys like "English Outsider" offering .. or maybe more precisely; Put ... oh nevermind.
'English Outsider' is down aways and I'm just wondering if he ever jumped out of an airplane.
https://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2019/10/changes-regarding-scheduling-and-filing-papers-in-the-michael-flynn-case.html
That implied from the comment thread there abouts seem about right?
Posted by: JK | Monday, 04 November 2019 at 03:58
BoJo's suppressing of the report is interesting, isn't it?
One: If it validates Steele in some way by giving him credence then the Don will be mighty unhappy. Given his penchant for spinning on a sixpence he might do a 180 on his current love of Blighty and BoJo and that wouldn't be good right in the middle of an election. There are enough moving parts in Brit politics just now without adding an exploding Don! After the election maybe the "truth" will out, whatever the "truth" is, if any, of the report.
Two: Gawd knows how much Rooskie money and influence the report reveals in Blighty's finance sector and further afield - Brexiteer coffers of one variety or the other, for example. Now that really would go down like a shit sandwich for the Leaver strata of Brit politics across the parties if it came out during the election.
BoJo's motives for non-release pretty clear-cut I think?
A good old fashioned Blighty cover-up and Grieve is just weaponizing it; the other side would do the same if it was their ammo to throw.
What we all have to hope for is Jezza not getting into power. You can be sure every molecule of Rooskie dirt on the Don, Steele et al, will be outed, and the info used as an argument to nationalize the UK finance industry (or rather complete the nationalization already in part after the financial crash).
My ha'penny's worth!
SoD
Posted by: Loz | Monday, 04 November 2019 at 07:34
I'm very worried about the guys and gals of Old Hickory.
Looking at the pic of the Bradley unloading from the C-17, I assumed the add-on kit around the rear of the turret was the Iron Fist active protection system - see second picture tweeted by the CO...
https://www.militarytimes.com/flashpoints/2019/10/31/bradleys-and-army-infantry-roll-into-syria-to-help-secure-oil-wells/
However, on closer inspection I don't think it is - see comparison pics here? ...
https://breakingdefense.com/2019/01/m2-bradley-gets-an-iron-fist-first-photo-of-israeli-anti-missile-defense/
If an RPG hits a Bradley unprotected by Iron Fist with loss of life and it becomes known that Iron Fist was not deployed on the vehicles in Syria, that's a tragedy and scandal in the making.
You might wanna run that past your chums, JK?
SoD
Posted by: Loz | Monday, 04 November 2019 at 07:50
Looks like Iron Fist is not fitted on any Bradleys yet, scheduled first thing 2020 ...
https://www.janes.com/article/90827/bradley-integration-of-iron-fist-aps-back-on-track-deliveries-expected-by-end-of-2020
Shame the Don couldn't have kept Dirty Erdy talking for another few months before unleashing project "Keep the oil".
SoD
Posted by: Loz | Monday, 04 November 2019 at 09:03