Is NATO Eager For WWIII? Most Unlikely.

 

In today's peace settlement in Ukraine news we read an implied threat that our EU peacekeepers might just go into world-ender mode the first chance they get:

An anonymous Western official offered another option, saying the [French and UK] forces could launch direct, immediate strikes on Russian targets if a cease-fire is violated.

Wow. French and UK troops going toe-to-toe with the Rooskies? All the way up to nuclear combat? That's a hell of a prospect. 

The last time UK and other NATO troops engaged in a standoff with Russian forces was in 1999 during the Kosovo War in what has become known as the Incident at Pristina Airport:

The following morning, Sunday 13 June, [U.S. General] Clark arrived at [UK General] Jackson's HQ in Skopje. It was pointed out to Clark that the isolated Russians could not be reinforced by air and that, in light of how vital Russian support had been to get a peace agreement, antagonising them would only be counterproductive. Clark refused to accept this and continued to order that the runway be blocked, claiming to be supported by the NATO Secretary-General. 

When again directly ordered to block the runway, Jackson suggested that British tanks and armoured cars would be more suitable, in the knowledge that this would almost certainly be vetoed by the British government. Clark agreed. Jackson was ready to resign rather than follow Clark's order. The British Ministry of Defence authorised British force commander Richard Dannatt to use 4 Armoured Brigade to isolate the airfield but not to block the runways. Clark's orders were not carried out, and the United States instead requested neighbouring states not to allow Russia to use their airspace to ferry in reinforcements. Russia was forced to call off the reinforcements after Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania refused requests by Russia to use their airspace.

“I’m not going to start World War Three for you,” Newsweek reported Jackson as telling Clark. And okay, probably discretion was the better part of valor that day. 

Does anyone believe that the present day UK and French Generals are any more eager for nuclear combat than Jackson was in 1999?

Only in Zelensky's wet dreams. 

UK FCO Minister Talking Trash About Trump

One should not get into a trash talking contest with Trump. https://t.co/vndxrn3xxn

— TSB (@TweetingTSB) November 6, 2024

 

Post Election, the View From a Broad

Batshit Bonkers Britain: GOD BLESS THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA pic.twitter.com/xckWpKlABD

— Katie Hopkins (@KTHopkins) November 6, 2024

'Allo, 'allo, 'allo, what's all this then? 

She's right, ain't she? Hapless PM Starmer and his Foreign Minister Lammy look like they'll be among the first victims of The Trumpening. 

A lesson could be learned there, like, don't trash-talk potential Presidents before they are well and truly out of power. 

Their German counterparts could benefit from our UK ally's mistake there.

It's Their Mind and They'll Think What They Want

Think before you post. https://t.co/sgqCErb4AC

— GOV.UK (@GOVUK) August 8, 2024

Since we're all officially admonished to THINK (which used to be the IBM corporate slogan, IIRC, long before it became a verbal bludgeon of Britain's police bigwigs) let's spare a thought for the UK's lower-class sort that is the target of all this oppressive Nanny-Statism. 

What do you suppose they're thinking? And might it be a massive load of anger and resentment directed squarely at their 'betters'?  

 

But baby (Baby) 

Remember (Remember) 

It's my life and I'll do what I want 

It's my mind and I'll think what I want 

- It's My Life (1965), Eric Burdon and The Animals 

Eric Burdon had the best male voice in '60s pop music, if you ask me. And his best songs had a working class edge that, if you further ask me, the British need to recover today more than ever before.   

Check out the opening lyric: It's a hard world to get a break in / all the good things have been taken. 

Does that not speak to the Brits we've seen pushing back at the national leaders who are hosting all the illegal entrants they can find while arresting Brits for speaking out about it on line?

There is a long and storied tradition of Anglo-Saxon rowdyism which is triggered by unfair treatment, and it doesn't take much imagination to see such treatment happening all over the UK today.     

So the top of UK society warns the lower class to THINK before they speak, or else face vaguely sinister "consequences." Well, once the lowers have thought about it long enough, the uppers just might see that threat blow up in their faces.  

 

 

Britain's Future Looks Fabulous Under PM Starmer, But Only If You're Into Glitter

Starmer gets manhandled by a 140 lbs protestor. pic.twitter.com/Laglrji3cr

— Dane (@UltraDane) August 18, 2024

The Britain's Future branding raises this pathetic incident to the level of comedy, which is a great improvement over what it would be otherwise, such as 'unbelievable security failure' or 'PM's girly-man reaction to personal assault.'

Not auspicious, to say the least. The UK's top security detail allowed a protestor onto the stage with Starmer and then stood by stunned for ten long seconds while - better, whilst - the loony deployed an IGB (Improvised Glitter Bomb) on their protectee and then held hands with a clearly non-consenting Starmer.

It's hard to say which offense is the worse in today's UK: the exuberant public speech or the unwanted physical intimacy.

When Boyhood's Fire Was In Their Blood ...

Petrol bombs being thrown at the PSNI in Derry.
pic.twitter.com/u43z4bQ5XD

— Toby 🇮🇪 (@ThoughtsToby) August 10, 2024

Check out those four-foot tall Oirish insurgents tossing petrol bombs at Northern Ireland police vehicles. Don't miss the bag of chips that appears towards the end. 

This is some sort of children's crusade, unlike the riots we saw last week elsewhere in the UK. 

I can only imagine that they're following in the footsteps of their fathers and grandfathers, who may have handed down some experience at making firebombs. 

There is plenty of old inspiration there.

Don't Tell Me Who I May or May Not Insult! Reform UK's Section 5

Rowan Atkinson on free speech. The Christian Institute spearheaded the Reform Section 5 campaign to get the word ‘insulting’ removed from Section 5 of the Public Order Act, as part of the Crime and Courts Bill. Full video: https://t.co/fSoJ0o7PEf pic.twitter.com/NqQCdJsTRZ

— The Christian Institute (@christianorguk) June 1, 2023

Until today I was not aware of the Reform Section 5 movement. Now, I'm its biggest fan. 

I particularly like Atkinson's point that the "insulting words" test does not even require that there be a victim, just some expression that someone in power - who exactly? - deems insulting. 

He arrives at the same solution the U.S. Supreme Court did in 1931: the 'counterspeech doctrine' that says the solution to speech you don't like is more speech not suppressing other speakers. 

That's how free societies behave. Anything less is simply an all-purpose excuse to lock up any party whom the police disfavor.

 

Not a Crazy Idea - Give Political Refugee Status to Opinionated Brits

Could we see refugee and asylum requests from Brits who are persecuted for their political opinion?

“Refugee status or asylum may be granted to people who have been persecuted or fear they will be persecuted on account of … political opinion.” Immigration and Nationality Act https://t.co/ZYo5dmdU8O

— TSB (@TweetingTSB) August 9, 2024

I say, Defund the Thought Police! But until then, what would prevent the U.S. from extending refugee or asylee status to Brits who are oppressed by their government for the expression of political opinion?

Here's what opinionated Brits are facing today. I'd say it qualifies them for refugee status.
 

Think before you post! 📲✋ Content that incites violence or hatred isn't just harmful - it can be illegal.

The CPS takes online violence seriously and will prosecute when the legal test is met. Remind those close to you to share responsibly or face the consequences. pic.twitter.com/5gxnUH02yw

— Crown Prosecution Service (@CPSUK) August 7, 2024

Actually, that post is misleading, or as the Crown Prosecution Service itself would probably say, it is disinformation. The law in question extends to content that is "threatening, abusive, or insulting," which goes well beyond inciting violence or hatred. 

All those terms are fundamentally subjective anyway, so the CPS is threatening to prosecute Brits for expressing political opinion that some unnamed party in the CPS dislikes. 

Moreover, by threatening to extradite offenders from abroad, the CPS threatens to take its oppressive nanny state to everyone everywhere. 

Well, the 1st Amendment stands between me and the CPS, so I feel pretty safe. Over here, we still adhere to the constitutional 'counterspeech doctrine' which holds that the best remedy to combat harmful speech is “more speech, not enforced silence” (Justice Brandeis, Stromberg v. California (1931). But our British cousins have no such protection. 

Maybe a significant number of Brits will now notice that constitutions work a lot better when they are written down, as their Chartists knew. 

But until then, why should we not welcome mouthy political refugees from the UK to come over here and breathe the sweet air of freedom?

Dear Colonel Qaddafi ... Your Friends, Gordon and Tony

Well, this is embarrassing for someone. The UK Daily Mail has the story, with photos, of a "devastating stash of documents" that was left behind when the British Ambassador's residence in Tripoli was evacuated four months ago.

The revelations come in documents – some marked ‘UK secret: UK/Libya Eyes Only’ – found strewn on the floor of the British Ambassador’s abandoned residence in Tripoli.

Many of the papers demonstrate the warmth of the relationship between Britain and Libya and, in particular, the extraordinarily close links between the Blair Government and the Gaddafi regime.

The notes show how:

• Tony Blair helped Colonel Gaddafi’s playboy son Saif with his ‘dodgy’ PhD thesis while he was Prime Minister.

• British Special Forces were offered to train the Khamis Brigade, Gaddafi’s most vicious military unit.

• MI6 was apparently willing to trace phone numbers for Libyan intelligence.

• Gordon Brown wrote warmly to Gaddafi in 2007 expressing the hope that the dictator would be able to meet Prince Andrew when he visited Tripoli.

• MI6’s budget (£150 million in 2002) was readily disclosed to Libyan officials, along with details of how Britain’s Downing Street emergency committee Cobra operates.

• Britain’s intelligence services forged close links with Gaddafi’s brutal security units.

Those sensitive documents had been lying there in the vacated Ambassador's residence all this time. Evidently, no one tidied them up when the UK reopened its Tripoli embassy a week or so ago, and visiting journalists were allowed to make off with them.

The incriminating documents were found in the wreckage of the British ambassador’s home in Tripoli, a three-storey house vandalised in April by Gaddafi loyalists.

There were several booklets filled with the faces of suspected terrorists, scores of personally signed letters sent from Downing Street and detailed intelligence data on the Gaddafi regime.

Incredibly, all this had lain amid the debris for four months, with no attempt made to secure the papers even in the week after the rebels ousted the dictator from the city.

Mountains of shredded paper showed British diplomats tried to destroy many documents before fleeing.

The U.S. counterparts of those British diplomats can surely empathize, because they've been there before. Like in Tehran, 1979. It's not so easy to ensure you've destroyed everything that needs to be destroyed when you're under attack and have only a skeleton staff to bag n' drag all those files to the shredder. And then you never know when the paper shredder will jam.

Here's a tip for the UK Foreign Ministry, from the bottom of my governmental heart. Next time, spend the money to get really fast, durable, crosscut paper shredders. Here's a list. When you need to evacuate in a hurry, accept no substitutes.