Thursday 15 January 2009

Nothing Special

Much hand-wringing from the usual suspects about Hillary Clinton's failure to mention "the special relationship" at her confirmation hearing.

Well, she did mention "al-Qaeda", so she probably felt that she had fulfilled her quota for mentioning things that do not exist.

America entered the War for her own reasons, and on her own strictly businesslike terms with us. Nothing wrong with that. But it gives the lie to the popular fantasy of a "special relationship", a term which no American has ever used.

We went to Korea, but so did a lot of other people. The Americans opposed us in Suez (when they were right, but that is not the present point), and didn't go to Malaya. We stayed out of Vietnam. They were practically on the other side in the Falklands War, when our nearest thing to an ally was France. And the first Gulf War was much like Korea.

All in all, there is simply no factual basis whatever for the warmongering lie that we have an unbreakable military alliance with the United States. We have not. And if you don't believe me, then just ask the Americans themselves.

6 comments:

  1. Good points. I remember thinking during the Georgia crisis that the debate isn't if Georgia belongs in NATO, but if the US belongs in NATO.

    That particular alliance is 19 years past its shelf life and showing it in Afghanistan. I can't think of any reason to justify American involvement in Europe, politically or militarily.

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  2. Obama's call for more British troops to be sent to Afghnaistan will stretch Britain's commitment to NATO to the limit.

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  3. The nations of Western Europe just don't have any fight left in them. A few nations there, the UK among them, field many fine fighting men. The problem is with the governments and populations. You need a certain portion of the population that will tell anyone to go f**k themselves, and fight to make the point. Not thugs, but decent men who will fight on principle. It looks like WWI and WWII have killed off the European alpha males.

    I've been impressed by the magnificent soldiers of the Australian Defense Forces. Motivated, intelligent, fit, tough, don't complain, steadfast and competent. I asked one how many divisions the ADF could field, and he just laughed. I was fantasizing somewhere between 15-20, a mix of mech inf, armor, and airborne forces. Reality is more like 3 expeditionary brigades.

    Now that my country has gone socialist it remains to be seen if we'll have the ability to defend ourselves, let alone seething anti-American ingrates.

    Good luck on that side of the pond.

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  4. "The nations of Western Europe just don't have any fight left in them"

    In that sense, nor do you, and nor should any of us.

    Fight against what? Against whom? And why?

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  5. For 1400 years the armies of Islam have waged a relentless war of expansion. We're only the latest culture slated for dhimmitude if we don't fight back.

    I'd rather fight than live as a dhimmi.

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  6. Then look at which side the people who supported the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, and who now want wars against Iran and Syria, backed in 1980s Afghanistan, backed in 1990s Bosnia, and back in today’s Kosovo, Chechnya, Pakistan (effectively), Saudi Arabia and elsewhere.

    Look at their support for the Islamist government of Turkey.

    Look at how a bulwark against Islamic militancy has been taken out in Iraq, with all the predictable consequences. Look at how they want to do the same thing in Syria.

    Look at how the global capitalist economic system depends on mass migration, not least to the West from the Islamic world.

    And look out for Xinjiang, the secsssion of which they will back in full, whereas the strongly oppose the independence from Muslim Azerbaijan of Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave of the first entire people ever to become Christian.

    All that Saudi, Kuwaiti and Emirati money to the Bushes and the Clintons is only too well-spent.

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