World at War

[Aggers]

What a frightful world we will be leaving for our decendants.

[Suff]

Perhaps even more frightful than the world we left behind at the end of the 20th century.

I clearly recall being woken from sleep and having to report to the barracks at 4am on a Wednesday morning. As I walked out of the apartment block I could clearly hear the sound of 100 auxiliary generators on the 100 tanks running, meaning that there was a regimental mobilisation going on.

I recall wondering if it really was war or if it was just an exercise. Survival Stats for BAOR (remember that?), were 2.5 minutes for 50% of the troops and 5 days for half the remainder. With only 25% of the original force being alive by the time the reserves and resupply arrived 5 days later. This was a conventional war, not Nuclear.

The tactical plan was that every unit moved east, forward to contact except the lance missile squadron who moved west over the Rhine. If the Russians made it over the Rhine, then we Nuked them with tactical nukes.

That was the reality we lived with for 50 years.

Even though this was quite literally MADness, it worked and was on balance. That balance has now been broken and, quite literally, the power that once only rested in a few hands of a few relatively stable nations is now disseminating to people who are, to us, quite literally MAD. Many of them don't care if they die so long as their death achieves some obscure goal which nobody but a fanatic would recognise as a good thing.

The previous balance (bad as it was), tended to stop these crazies. Nobody cares if you take out your big gun and blow away the person walking towards you with a lighted match, when you sit on an open keg of gunpowder. However, if all you are sitting on is a large banger, it is a very different story. All the "pacifists" tell you it's only a banger. "What about the warehouse full of fireworks over there" you say? "Oh they'll never get at that, it's too well guarded" say the pacifists.

Time was that you needed billions of $ and a warehouse full of computer equipment to do nuclear modelling. North Korea once bough thousands of PS2's and wrote their own operating system to do nuclear modelling. Now you can do all of that on half a dozen PS3's and Linux already exists for it, ready for parallel computing (that used in chess games and nuclear modelling).

Our world has changed and has become a significantly more dangerous place. The biggest issue is that countries like Iran believe that the rest of the world will only use conventional force to stop them. If, in fact, the rest of the world were to drop one low yield "clean"(everything is relative) nuclear weapon on every known Iranian nuclear installation, the problem would be solved and the world would become a significantly safer place as it would be "known", by those who wish to use weapons of mass destruction as a tool for power brokerage, that they can be stopped and it won't take thousands of lives or trillions of $.

What we need is a more pragmatic approach to the weapons we already have.

[KateLMead]

Interesting suff and so true... We can only wait! see! and hope that these threatening countries and leaders who endanger the world will come to their senses, nothing can be achieved by threats and fear,..Yesterday was sad day for me having remembered the expressions on my children's faces when I took them around a concentration camp in Germany, explaining what man's inhumanity to man can do to fellow human beings men, women and children on the orders of maniacs.. Syria is another example and indeed Afghansitan where people are living on borders in sub human conditions in tents. Indeed the wqrld has gone mad!!

[Workingman]

Rogue states - N. Korea, Iran and Pakistan - are one thing. They are best dealt with by conventional armies and their weapons... when the time comes. The disparate band of unaligned fanatics, with their fifth columns in Western countries, are a different problem altogether.

They might only be lightly armed, uncoordinated, using largely civilian vehicles and be driven by fanaticism, but those things are their strengths not their weaknesses.

Groups such as these have a remarkable success story. Think of the Partisans, Lawrence of Arabia, Le Resistance, and an untold number of anti-colonial wars, and it is easy to see that a different type of military thinking/tactic is needed to overcome them.

[KateLMead]

Rogue states - N. Korea, Iran and Pakistan - are one thing. They are best dealt with by conventional armies and their weapons... when the time comes. The disparate band of unaligned fanatics, with their fifth columns in Western countries, are a different problem altogether.

They might only be lightly armed, uncoordinated, using largely civilian vehicles and be driven by fanaticism, but those things are their strengths not their weaknesses.

Groups such as these have a remarkable success story. Think of the Partisans, Lawrence of Arabia, Le Resistance, and an untold number of anti-colonial wars, and it is easy to see that a different type of military thinking/tactic is needed to overcome them.

Yourself and suff and a few others are far more knowledge than I am Frank, I write from an emotional angle, the future state of this world will not affect me so much in my old age, but as aggers says what hope for our grandchildren and the future generations.. Thousands more immigrants from Bulgaria and Romania expected to invade our country over these coming months. I can never see them signing up to fight and protect this country any more than the thousands upon thousands have who have already have arrived both legal and illegal.

[Oojamaflip]

Yourself and suff and a few others are far more knowledge than I am Frank, I write from an emotional angle, the future state of this world will not affect me so much in my old age, but as aggers says what hope for our grandchildren and the future generations.. Thousands more immigrants from Bulgaria and Romania expected to invade our country over these coming months. I can never see them signing up to fight and protect this country any more than the thousands upon thousands have who have already have arrived both legal and illegal.

Oooh Kate, I think you may have stumbled on something . . . some sort of compulsory 'national service' for those who wish to make these isles their home, in order to show some sort of commitment?

[cromwell]

War used to be a much simpler concept, one country against another.
Nuking one country now?
Bear in mind you most likely have thousands and thousands of that country's citizens living in your own country now.
What do you do about them?

[Workingman]

Bear in mind you most likely have thousands and thousands of that country's citizens living in your own country now.
What do you do about them?

The $64 question!

What do we do about these potential Fifth Columnists in our midst? Try to win hearts and minds? Contain them?

[KateLMead]

Yourself and suff and a few others are far more knowledge than I am Frank, I write from an emotional angle, the future state of this world will not affect me so much in my old age, but as aggers says what hope for our grandchildren and the future generations.. Thousands more immigrants from Bulgaria and Romania expected to invade our country over these coming months. I can never see them signing up to fight and protect this country any more than the thousands upon thousands have who have already have arrived both legal and illegal.

Oooh Kate, I think you may have stumbled on something . . . some sort of compulsory 'national service' for those who wish to make these isles their home, in order to show some sort of commitment?

This has been my grouse Ooj for years, they come here get looked after by the state, but as for showing allegiance to this country of ours "I aint seen any yet"not in any quarter..Our Britain is no longer British, where has my England gone? our country has been turned into dozens of countries all established in their foreign communities, many no go area's for the British, all established, their Mosques, traditions, Sharia laws, educational systems, lawyers, every immigrant here can be assured of being well looked after as the thousands more about to arrive will be welcomed into their communities, housed, welfare taken careof.. We have said goodbye to that wonderful country that we once claimed to be so proud of!! Where I agree diversity has its advantages, it also has its problems when the system is abused as we shall see and pay for by the day.

[Suff]

What do we do about these potential Fifth Columnists in our midst? Try to win hearts and minds? Contain them?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_A ... internment