July 29, 2009

No Good Can Come From Negotiating With The Taliban

Seriously. Are the British really going to fucking talk and negotiate with the fucking Taliban? Sadly, it appears so.

For more than a year, British intelligence officers have been instigating contacts with Taliban commanders and their entourage. But their task has been very delicate given the sensitivities of the Karzai administration in Kabul {yeah, given the history of the Taliban to kill anybody not them, they damn well have a right to be concerned-ed.}.

The situation has been complicated further by the influx of hardline and ideologically motivated fighters joining the Taliban and other insurgent groups from across the Pakistani border {this sounds like 2002,2003,2004,2005,2006,2007,2008-ed.}.

But the fact that senior ministers and military commanders seized on the apparent success of Operation Panther's Claw to highlight the possibility of talks with the Taliban reflects their concern about the lack of progress so far in Nato's counter-insurgency. Significantly, and as if to counter public aversion to talks with the Taliban, ministers and military commanders alike compared the current campaign in southern Afghanistan to anti-terrorist operations in Northern Ireland.

A ComRes poll in today's Independent suggests most people now believe British troops should be pulled out of Afghanistan. Most of those who responded (58%) said the Taliban could not be defeated militarily, and 52% of those surveyed said troops should be withdrawn immediately. This compares with a Guardian/ICM poll earlier this month which showed that 42% of those surveyed wanted troops to be withdrawn immediately.

America's priorities in Afghanistan will be spelled out in a briefing paper drawn up by General Stanley McChrystal, the new US commander in the country, due to be handed to Barack Obama tomorrow.

He will emphasise the need for speeding up the training of Afghan troops, according to defence sources. He is also expected to ask for more troops from Nato allies. British military commanders are drawing up contingency plans to increase the number of British forces to more than 10,000 from the current 9,000.

Asked whether he needed more troops, Brigadier Tim Radford, commander of British troops in Helmand, replied: "I have enough forces to do what I set out to do in Panther's Claw."

The number of British troops that might be deployed in future was "out of my hands", he said. But he added that as the number of Afghan army recruits increased, the number of Nato forces required to train them also increased {and other than the US, Canada, and UK, the NATO troops are in the pacified areas, not the hotspots-ed}.

Miliband's call for talks with more moderate Taliban elements {hah!-ed.}was echoed later by Gordon Brown, who said: "Our strategy has always been to complement the military action that we've got to take to clear the Taliban, to threaten al-Qaida in its bases – while at the same time we put in more money to build the Afghan forces, the troops, the police."

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July 28, 2009

Help us, Zombie Churchill!

Am I disappointed by this? Yes. Am I surprised? Hardly. It is, after all, a textbook example of FAIL Britannia:

Scores of Scotland Yard officers are in open revolt after being banned from wearing Union Flag badges in support of British troops.

Met chiefs have decreed that the tiny emblems – which cost £1 with proceeds going to charity – must be removed after a complaint that they are offensive.

But furious junior officers are continuing to wear them in defiance at the politically correct stance.

A petition has been launched on the Downing Street website demanding they be allowed to wear the badges, which are to raise funds for the Royal British Legion and the Help for Heroes charity.

Peter Smyth, chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, said: ‘The decision to forbid police officers from joining the rest of the country in showing support for those who are fighting for their country is nothing less than shameful.’

Um, maybe it's just me, but if you find the flag of the country you happen to be living in "offensive," you might want to, you know, relocate. Seeing as how you're likely to see that particular symbol rather frequently and all.

Oh, and good on the officers who are defying this stupid order. I don't know if it would help, us being Americans and all, but you can sign a petition supporting them here.

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July 26, 2009

Sadly Obligatory British Fail

Just a reminder that self defense is illegal in Britain:

A company director has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after confronting a gang of yobs who were attacking his stepson.

Colin Philpott, 58, allegedly stabbed a 16-year-old in the chest during the incident in the front garden of his £500,000 Tudor-style house.

He had awoken late on Friday night to discover stepson Alex Lee being beaten by the group of teenagers.

They can take my letter opener from my cold dead hands.

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July 23, 2009

Great news!

Well, great news if you happen to be a Limey sex offender, that is...

Paedophiles and rapists yesterday won the right to have their names removed from the Sex Offenders Register in a landmark human rights ruling.

Appeal Court judges ruled sex offenders who no longer pose a threat should be given the chance to have their names wiped off the police database.

The decision has outraged victims' groups who fear sexual predators will commit further crimes without any restrictions or supervision of their movements.

The case comes after two convicted sex attackers, including a child rapist, went to the High Court arguing that being on the register for life was a breach of their human rights.

Yeah, I like that "human" part. Clever, that.

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July 22, 2009

George Orwell, rolling, grave, etc.

"Anarchy In The U.K." is looking less and less like a petulant punk stance and more and more like a valid rallying cry...

Little-noticed measures passed by the Government will allow officers and Olympics officials to enter homes and shops near official venues to confiscate any protest material.
See, this is why we have an actual written Constitution that guarantees our freedoms as citizens against government encroachment on those rights.

Oh, wait...

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July 10, 2009

We're not the only ones with a Hopey-Changey foreign policy

http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/nn209/doubleplusundeadnu/chamberlain3.jpg

Proof of reincarnation?

Gordon Brown shows us that skittle-shitting unicorns are actually an international phenomenon:

The Prime Minister said US-brokered talks next year could pave the way for the UK to reduce its 160-warhead arsenal in return for proof from would-be nuclear states they had stopped their weapons programmes.

Speaking at a G8 summit in Italy, Mr Brown insisted there was no question of abandoning plans to replace the Trident weapons system.

But he signalled the number of British warheads and nuclear-armed submarines could be reduced as part of a new international agreement.

He said: "What we need is collective action by the nuclear weapons powers to say that we are prepared to reduce our nuclear weapons, but we need assurances also that other countries will not proliferate them."

[...]

In exchange for the cuts, Mr Brown suggested that aspiring nuclear states would have to accept new requirements on non-proliferation, possibly including international inspections.

"The onus will be on countries that do not have nuclear weapons to prove they do not have nuclear weapons," Mr Brown told reporters in L'Aquila, Italy.

Yeah, and those assurances from the Norks and the Mad Mullahs in Iran have historically been proven to be worth their weight in...well, I'd say bullshit, but you can actually use bullshit to make fertilizer, which is useful.

I know Lady Thatcher hasn't been in the best of health lately, but perhaps she could be summoned to give Brown a much-needed punch in the dick.

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July 08, 2009

Where we may be heading

Well, here's a horrifying glimpse of the not-too-distant future if the GOP can't get its act together in 2010 or 2012, courtesy of our friends across the pond:

More than one million jobless Britons have been living off state handouts for more than 12 years, it has emerged.

A hardcore army of unemployed have failed to find any sort of work since Labour came to power in 1997.

Yeah. That's just super. Now, imagine the Dems in control of at least two of our branches of government for the forseeable future and their buddies at ACORN feeling their oats, and there we are.

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