Say Anything Blog

The Royal Navy currently has 88 active vessels, the Belgian Navy no longer exists as an independent entity, but the naval arm of the Belgian Armed Forces currently has 22 vessels. If there were any plans to cut back the Royal Navy to this level, it would have been splashed over the newspapers for weeks.
Government just voted to build the next generation of Trident submarines, our nuclear deterent. They haven’t voted to down-size the Navy.
As an island nation, we would never do something as heinous as this.

Your link to the NYP doesn’t work, Proof!

Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.

Your link to the NYP doesn’t work

I clicked it just now, took me straight to the story!

It’s by Arthur Herman: his latest book is “To Rule the Waves: How the British Navy Shaped the Modern World.” His next book, on Gandhi and Churchill, is due out next year

For any voter trying to choose between the two candidates for commander in chief, there is no better test than this: When American strategy in a critical theater was up for grabs, John McCain proposed a highly unpopular and risky path, which he accurately predicted could lead to success. Barack Obama proposed a popular and politically safe route that would have led to an unnecessary and debilitating American defeat at the hands of al Qaeda.

Frederick W. Kagan

A little more for those unable to link…

The latest report is that the Britons were ready to fight off their abductors. Certainly their escorting ship, HMS Cornwall, could have blown the Iranian naval vessel out of the water. However, at the last minute the British Ministry of Defense ordered the Cornwall not to fire, and her captain and crew were forced to watch their shipmates led away into captivity.

There was a question whether the Blair government would end up leaving Britain with a navy too small to protect its shores. Now it seems to want a navy that can’t even protect its own sailors.

For any voter trying to choose between the two candidates for commander in chief, there is no better test than this: When American strategy in a critical theater was up for grabs, John McCain proposed a highly unpopular and risky path, which he accurately predicted could lead to success. Barack Obama proposed a popular and politically safe route that would have led to an unnecessary and debilitating American defeat at the hands of al Qaeda.

Frederick W. Kagan

Link works now.

Also checked up on the story and that’s true too.

I find Blair and his policies disgusting. He and his socialist cronies are driving this country into the ground and the British people seem willing to let them.

Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.

Fred Thompson:

Blair is threatening to escalate to a “different phase,” but Iran’s leadership knows something that most Americans don’t. Two months ago, Britain’s government announced plans to mothball almost half its naval fleet due to defense-budget cuts. Much of its existing navy is already so degraded; it would take over a year to get into action. According to the British newspaper, the Daily Telegraph, senior naval officers say that the cuts “will turn Britain’s once-proud Navy into nothing more than a coastal defense force.”
In fact, the British naval forces have been so neglected; the U.K. probably couldn’t pull off the Falkland Islands mission today. The world’s fifth-largest economy now supports an army that ranks 28th in size.

Audio here.

For any voter trying to choose between the two candidates for commander in chief, there is no better test than this: When American strategy in a critical theater was up for grabs, John McCain proposed a highly unpopular and risky path, which he accurately predicted could lead to success. Barack Obama proposed a popular and politically safe route that would have led to an unnecessary and debilitating American defeat at the hands of al Qaeda.

Frederick W. Kagan

In fact, the British naval forces have been so neglected; the U.K. probably couldn’t pull off the Falkland Islands mission today.

What is concerning about that is that the Argentinians are expressing renewed desires to capture the Falklands.

A more in-depth analysis of the cutbacks can be found here, without the sensationalist media hype.

Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.