via Sky News.
Speaking to The Sunday Times, the new Defence Secretary Liam Fox revealed the Chief of the Defence Staff - as well as the Ministry of Defence's top civil servant, Sir Bill Jeffrey, are both to leave their jobs at the same time later this year.If I were to guess, I'd say that the good General didn't quite get on board with planned cuts or the direction of military forces in Afghanistan.
The Government is currently conducting a Strategic Defence Review (SDR) about the future of the British forces.
The paper said the clean sweep at the top is intended to improve the military's performance on the Afghan front line, as well as cutting Whitehall waste.
That leads me to believe that the cuts are going to be deeper than the Chief of Defense Staff wanted and the posture in Afghanistan is probably going to be biased toward reduced casualties.
Either way its bad news for the Afghans and General McChrystal. Now we know why Gates said that progress had to be shown by the end of the year...our allies are packing bags...they haven't left yet, but they're getting ready.
The Brits are broke. In fact their national debt is proportionally greater than America's, and they don't believe in mortgaging their future, at least not the Conservatives. It's too bad the USA can't show the same fiscal restraint, especially in pursuit of victory in a war you cannot and will not win.
ReplyDeleteback off the America bashing Jon.
ReplyDeleteWe don't want to have a talk about Israeli finances do we?
I'm not bashing America, Solomon. Believe me, I'm the most pro-American commenter you have here. If I were you, I'd be lying awake at nights worrying about the deficit that the US government is running up. How and when is it all going to be paid back? Why are you mortgaging your future to the Chinese? How much longer are they going to continue to buy your paper? With it all; the new health-care reform, plus two wars, I'll ask you again: how are you going to pay for it all?
ReplyDeleteIf you really want to know about Israeli finances, our deficits are proportionally much smaller than the USA, our balance of trade is almost even, banking system is healthy, unemployment is lower than in the USA now, and our economy is basically in good health. This is mostly due to the policies of Netanyahu, who believes in living within one's budget.
See:
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/BUSINESS/01/10/israel.economy/
And you know as well as I do that you guys aren't going to win in Afghanistan. Sorry, but it's the truth.
no, if we fought our enemies the way that they fight us, we could win in a week.
ReplyDeletei blame the politicians and the General's for fucking over the US military (again)...
but you have to understand this. if we can't win in afghanistan then nobody can win in the middle east and we should just was our hands of it.
That economic aid sure does help that robust economy of yours- keep that in mind.
ReplyDeleteThe reason NATO won't win is because nobody has ever been able to conquer or "fix" Afghanistan. It simply can't be done. Alexander The Great couldn't do it (in the end he had to marry one of their hill-chieftain's daughters to calm things down). The Mongols couldn't do it. The British ( 3 or 4 times) couldn't do it. The Russians couldn't do it. You're in good company. And do you really want your soldiers and marines to fight like the Taliban? I'm sure not.
ReplyDeleteDrake, Israel doesn't get economic aid. We stopped getting that during the Clinton administration. We do get military aid, which has to be either from American companies or made in factories in the USA.
Oh, and by the way, your "allies in the war on terror" in Pakistan are selling you out:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article7149515.ece
Jonathan you really don't want to go here with some of your statements cowboy.
ReplyDeletefirst i'm a huge supporter of Israel but you're making it hard with your accusatory tone.
second. no one is so stupid as to believe that Pakistan is an ally.
third. if the aid that you do get from the US is a pain in the ass then don't take it.
i understand pride, so if you feel that the US is not properly supporting Israel then tell us to back off .
Where in my comments am I accusing anyone of anything or am I complaining about American aid to Israel?
ReplyDeleteYour whole military industry exists mainly becuase of us. Call the aid economic or military, but it still is a boon that we pay for so you guys can have a nice economy.
ReplyDeleteSorry Drake, but that's not true. The USA only became our biggest defense customer in 2008.
ReplyDelete