The cupboard is bare - by Richard... Tuesday, May 24, 2011

The cupboard is bare - by Richard... Tuesday, May 24, 2011

You might have thought that the end of the very last British mission in Iraq might have triggered more discussion, especially with David Miliband complaining of the failure "to develop a proper strategy for peace".

However, no more can the media intelligently discuss Iraq than it can the current operations in Libya, where we now hear that British and French forces are planning to deploy attack helicoptersin an attempt to break the military stalemate.

Bizarrely, with the British offering three Apache helicopters operating from HMS Ocean (type pictured) – and a fourth to join shortly - The Guardian calls this a "significant escalation of the conflict". Thus, according to this newspaper, after 300 GR4 Tornado and 140 Eurofighter sorties flown against Gaddafi's forces, with the release of approximately 240 munitions, the use of the relatively lightly-armed and extremely vulnerable Apaches represents a "significant escalation".

Nevertheless, it is acknowledged that the operation of these aircraft will be "risky", but "reflect deepening frustration among British and French defence chiefs about their continuing inability to protect civilians". It is said that they can manoeuvre and attack small targets in relatively built-up areas. They can thus deal with Gaddafi forces who have shed their uniforms, and are using civilian vehicles and hiding armour near civilian buildings, including hospitals and schools.

The paper goes on to say that the decision to deploy the helicopters is a clear recognition that high-level bombing from 15,000 feet cannot protect civilians who continue to be attacked by rocket and mortar shells. It brings the NATO "offensive" much closer to the ground at a time when Britain and other coalition countries are insisting they have no intention of sending in troops.

The decision, however, is also a recognition that, when it comes to military assets available to the coalition partners, the cupboard is bare. While the US could deploy – if it so wished – the highly accurate AC-130s and A-10s, there is nothing similar in the coalition armoury.

And, if the British are having problems, the French are in even bigger trouble, fielding untested Tigre attack helicopters and the antique Gazelle, so noisy and fragile that it was withdrawn from British service in Iraq.

Yet, even as the coalition struggles to maintain a credible force, Obama meets Cameron later today. Both, we are told, will vow to push for democracy throughout the Arab world, heedless of the irony that democracy has been all but abolished in the UK. But they will also pledge to threaten military action as a last resort against regimes that kill their people.

What no one seems to want to mention, though, is that current events illustrate that our armed forces are ill-equipped and structured for this intervention role. As time goes on, we will look more and more foolish, while the expenses mount, with very little achieved.

Despite this, neither the media nor the politicians seem able to pull the plug. Unable to understand the root causes of their own failures, they leave not only the physical but also the intellectual cupboard bare.

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Not their business - by Richard... Monday, May 23, 2011

It would be a change if we had politicians who could carry out the jobs they were paid to do with a modicum of competence. And it might help if they focused on those jobs, instead of straying into areas which are not their business.

It is Foxtrot Oscar time once again.

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Of this world? - by Richard...

Maturities on Greek debt could be extended on a voluntary basis as long as this does not create a credit event, says EU economic and monetary affairs commissioner Olli Rehn.

"While debt restructuring is not on the table, a Vienna-type initiative that aims at retaining the exposure of private investors, banks and other financial institutions to Greece could also be pursued", he told a news conference.

"In this context of the Vienna-type initiative we have said that a voluntary extension of loan maturities, so-called reprofiling or rescheduling on a voluntary basis, could also be examined on the condition that it would not create a credit event".

With that, one is not quite sure that Olli Rehn is of this world.

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Never heard of him - by Richard...

Should I be bothered about the media being prevented from naming someone who has had an extra-marital affair, a person whom I do not know, would not recognise, and have not even heard of? Do I even care in the slightest what this person does or has done? Could it be that the total extent of my interest is summed up by the phrase, "couldn't give a tinker's dam"?

But that we should now have both parliament and the man pretending to be our prime minister getting worked up about whether it is "fair" that the newspapers are not allowed to name this person (even if they now have), is rather disturbing. We have long become accustomed to the media babies having lost any sense of proportion or sense. But when our politicians follow down the same path, we are in serious trouble.

But it is perhaps even more disturbing that the media should go to the wire on this issue, confronting the judges on a matter of such banal triviality, while shying away from so many farmore important issues because there is a hint of legal action.

One would not have thought that even our media could have sunk so low but, since their main trade is to retail sleb-tat, it is unsurprising that they go to such extremes to preserve access to their raw material.

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A new economic paradigm - by Richard...

"We are talking about a limited number of back office technical roles. No customer-facing staff will be affected", says a spokesperson for "Service Birmingham". Where do they get these titles?

More to the point though, anyone having any experience of trying to get a resolution through a Crapita-run operation knows full well the futility of such an attempt. But, if that is bad enough, the prospect of British tax money being paid to provide Indians jobs in IT is not one that fills us with enthusiasm. There was a time when British money went on British jobs.

However, in between offshoring jobs and allowing immigrants in to do the remainder – on top of depriving our own children of a half-way decent education that would actually equip them for a world of work – one wonders where this new economic paradigm eventually takes us.

Somebody must know what they are doing here. Do they? Please tell me they do.

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Propaganda Я us - by Richard...

Courtesy of England Expects. It is a waste of time asking how low they can get ... there is no natural (or any) limit to the depths the EU can plumb.

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When, not if - ugly - by Richard...

Zero Hedge tells us what happens when, not if, Greece defaults.

Everyone is sick of prevaricating European politicians who even they admit are lying openly to the media, and tired of conflicted investment banks trying to make the situation appear more palatable if only they dress it in some verbally appropriate if totally ridiculous phrase. The truth is Greece will fold like a lawn chair: whether it's tomorrow or in one year, when the bailout money runs out, is irrelevant.

When it happens, it will be ugly. One wonders whether the children will notice. As the epidemic of stupidity continues to afflict our population, perhaps they'll read it off witter when some sleb discovers it in the pages of the Daily Fail.

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