Defence

2022-06-10

Substack is the place nowadays for unconventional thinking, so what to make of the war in the Ukraine?

Why hasn't Putin won yet?

Will the plucky Ukrainian army push the Russians back into oblivion?

Why is nobody making any progress?

John's Newsletter puts forward another perspective, which given the West's propensity for shooting itself in the foot might just be on target.

2022-06-04

At a time when Russia and NATO are eyeball to eyeball (or not, according to who you believe) in the Ukraine and various countries are denying that they want to join NATO (or being denied by Turkey), the game to sidestep this little hurdle is join by the EU backdoor.

How so?

The EU troops are mostly the same as the NATO troops - they merely deploy under different badges and (at least notionally) under a different command structure. 

So if you can't join NATO, join the EU.

Oh wait - Denmark is already a NATO member... so there must be another reason for joining the EU Security and Defence morass of complexity?

I have to say it's hard to think of one, unless they fear (probably rightly) that being outside the EU structures means that

2022-06-04

Well, since you ask, the Israel - Iran enmity looks like a good candidate.

Not that I'm feeling that we don't yet have enough problems, but maybe forewarned is forearmed.

I don't know this guy but he strikes me as genuine. Judging form his videos he's actually a bit of a Bible-bashing Israeli Christian, but he keeps his fingers on the political pulse as he lives in Israel, so he's a lot closer to the goings-on in that region than we are and he would be directly affected by events there.

Probably worth taking note.

(6 minutes)

Like / Dislike this video here.

2022-06-03

For a change it's the NHS (or UKHSA as we must now call it) and the Covid aftermath that takes pole position, with a very pertinent discussion on how the excess deaths of the second half of 2021 identified by a US life insurance company is being portrayed by the usual suspects. Yet the NHS still appears to be locked in terminal decline even though Covid deaths have declined and we were originally locked down to "save the NHS".

Once again the evolving Ukraine situation and how that relates to UK and US foreign policy is investigated and the likely results set out - neither the Biden administration nor NATO nor Ben Walllace come out well. Russia on the other hand doesn't seem to be short of additional customers for the hydrocarbons that it used to sell to Europe. 

And so on to the Bilderberg group (inclusive of Michael Gove, David Lamy, Mark Sedwill, Tom Tugendhat, and Jeremy Fleming (GCHQ) et al from the corporate and media worlds comprising the British contingent) and their meeting that will no doubt

2022-06-03

Is a turning point nigh?

This article in Unherd which (in my jaundiced judgement) has normally followed the "We must drive Putin out at all costs" narrative (and still suggests that the Russian armed forces have taken a beating and are nearing the limits of their operational effectiveness) is nevertheless now arguing for a negotiated settlement that would be acceptable to Putin.

"After all, the two sides have already reached agreement on the broadest issues: Zelenskyy has already stated that Ukraine will not join Nato and the Russian side has already accepted Ukraine’s entry into the European Union"

Personally I was unaware of that second assertion (and if I were Putin I would be very slow indeed to concede it) but nevertheless we have here a plea for good sense and a negotiated settlement. 

This strikes me as a

2022-06-02

With world events moving quite fast we have to try to keep up, so i make no apology for yet again featuring a UK Column report from Wednesday.

Don't get too hung up on the start of the programme where they take a (probably deserved) pop at a BBC reporter in the Ukraine - the subsequent section where Vanessa Beeley explains the way that the world's war-mongers are shaping up is quite masterly.

It is quite clear that without propaganda, very few wars would ever have been possible.

Oh, and Tony Blair is rumoured to be receiving a Knighthood from Her Majesty at Windsor on 13th June. Be there or be square.

And more on matters medical and monkey p*x (or should that be b****x?). Is anything what it seems any more?

And will there be an ambulance available when we need one? Worth watching.

(90 minutes)

...

2022-05-31

UK Column (Monday) brings us up to date with the unfolding Ukraine conflict, and a sorry tale of confusion is evident.

As ever, nothing may be quite as it seems.

Boris still wants to supply ever more powerful artillery, but will such be effective against the new hypersonic missiles currently being demonstrated by Russia's navy?

Plus the shootings in America and other items.

(82 minutes)

2022-05-31

This piece from the Campaign for an Independent Britain and based on research by Brexit Facts 4 EU I present without comment, as I am not qualified to comment (not that that would stop me, but on this occasion I think it best to leave you to form your own judgements).

I find it interesting, but without any comparative information about what say France, Germany or Spain (to mention three at random) are doing, I think it isn't possible to conclude very much.

See what you think.

Still, there are some interesting nuggets on the

2022-05-21

As the media (and many others) have been pulling out all the stops to "support the Ukraine", it has become pretty hard to find anyone who is prepared to take an even-handed viewpoint - you are either with them or against them - whoever "they" may be.

The problem I have with that is that being "with them" these days is automatically to be put into the "we must send them more arms" warmongering bucket, and being against them is to be put in the "supporter of evil Putin" bucket.

Apparently there isn't a "please stop the fighting and negotiate" bucket, and there now won't be until at least one side has been fought a standstill. Which side will that be?

Judging by the surrender at the steelworks (what steelworks requires a labyrinth of underground tunnels?), it doesn't seem likely it will be the Russians.

But just

2022-05-19

UK Column interviews Col. Richard Black who "served for 31 years in the US Marines and US Army JAG Corps, before entering politics".

(55 minutes)

2022-05-16

Fulford this Monday pulls no punches:

Destroy KM or face nuclear war Russia and China tell Pentagon

"There was a noisy meeting in the Security Council at the request of Russia regarding the development of American biological weapons on its borders inside Ukraine"

Has the show-down at the Kiev Corral finally arrived?

Warning, some of the videos show harrowing scenes. 

2022-05-07

This article posted by Terry Boardman is an in-depth tour of the history of the global power-struggle between the elites of the UK, Europe, Russia, the far East, and (latterly) the US.

LaRouchePAC have been fulminating about the perceived influence of the imperialist UK over the USA for some time, and it is becoming obvious that an unelected elite under the umbrella of the "New Word Order" (as currently fronted by Klaus Schwab but embodied by the western world's all-powerful corporate interests and their financiers) is intent on taking control of the UN by means of medical and legal dictatorship.

Is Ukraine the tinderbox that will ignite WW3?

The world does seem to be at a dangerous

2022-04-29

We noted a while ago that our government's obsession with stoking war rather than encouraging a negotiated peace in the Ukraine is perverse.

UK Column reports in much the same tone.

Ben Chapman of GB News reports (unsurprisingly) that Russia has a similar viewpoint:

"Russian state TV appears to have urged the Kremlin to blow "boorish Britain" to smithereens over the country's support for Ukraine"

Whilst the Satan-2 might be overkill, who can doubt that Russia would be entitled to take proportionate measures?

"Russia has already issued

2022-04-27

The goings-on surrounding Ukraine have been covered by UK Column, now we hear about the airspace situation from the man who monitors it day by day.

He doesn't believe the press reports either.

(21 minutes)

Like / Dislike this video here.

2022-04-27 

The UK Column now explicitly draws the obvious conclusions:

(86 minutes)

2022-04-24

We have noted before how our government prefers to ship more armaments and weapons of destruction into this imbroglio, rather than encourage the protagonists to negotiate a lasting peace in good faith.

The Minsk agreement of 2015 should have provided the basis for that negotiation, and still could.

It seems that good faith is lacking in many quarters, and not just in the Ukraine.

As this conflict drags on, should we in the UK still be stoking an impossible situation?

Do we really suppose that Vladimir Putin is going to give up and go home any time soon?

That simply isn't going to happen.

...

2022-04-08

Mopping up is allegedly all that is left for the Russians to complete.

The Daily Exposé hosts Larry C Johnson, who makes a compelling case.

"When a 24 mile (or 40 mile, depends on the news source) was positioned north of Kiev for more than a week, it was clear that Ukraine’s ability to launch significant military operations had been eliminated. If their artillery was intact, then that column was easy pickings for massive destruction"

"The Ukrainians did not even mount a significant infantry ambush of the column with their newly supplied U.S. Javelins"

Can't really argue with that analysis.

"Not only is Russia striking and destroying bases used by NATO regularly since 2015, but there was no air raid

2022-04-07

I have always advocated that the UK should leave the EU, and a major factor in that stance concerned our ability to defend ourselves without needing to rely on others whose strategic imperatives might not coincide with ours.

Add in the lack of transparency in matters of EU governance and the inherently bureaucratic nature of the decision-making, and I was clear in my own mind that the smallest competent group of British officers (including military, political, and expert) should be in the driving seat of our defence.

In passing I note that both UK and EU pronouncements on the Ukraine situation seem to be very long on stoking the inflammatory rhetoric and very short on trying to calm the situation with a view to promoting a negotiated settlement, so one does wonder whether our establishment really has withdrawn from EU defence thinking. In this critical area I do not subscribe to the view that our stance is in line with the thinking of the population.

Are

2022-04-06

Unherd's interview with Yanis Varoufakis, scourge of the EU, Greek and liberal left patriot and consummate economist and politician, who unlike most of that ilk, reliably speaks a great deal of sense.

We need his good sense now.

Read the article, watch the video:

(38 minutes)

Like / Dislike this video here.

2022-03-28

Much has in the past been written about PESCO and the labyrinthine network of treaties and agreements that underpin the EU's defence posture. The UK was famously equivocal about what parts of it we did or did not support, amongst much controversy over how we could be both leaving the EU and staying within its defence agreements.

I'm not entirely sure whether or not these arguments were ever really resolved, but today we have an article from Investigate Europe that has a look at the how the EU military is composed and who benefits.

"These huge arms producers are very much intertwined with governments and even competitors. They are also partly owned by the same American funds that control important parts of their -American competitors’ shares"

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